Sunday, January 24, 2010
A+E, Movies, Reviews

In the company of ‘Men’

‘Brief Interviews’ isn’t brief enough

JoJo Whilden
Julianne Nicholson and Timothy Hutton

“BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN”
Julianne Nicholson, John Krasinski
Directed by John Krasinski
Not rated
Landmark Midtown Art Cinema

BY STEVE WARREN

John Krasinski shouldn’t quit his day job at “The Office,” based on his first effort as a writer-director, “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.” Based on a book by the late David Foster Wallace, it needs psychoanalysis more than a review.

Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) is a Ph.D. candidate interviewing men for a university research project. In addition to her formal interviews, Sara does a lot of eavesdropping wherever she goes and records men’s conversations without their knowledge. Hey, it’s for research, right?

Many of the interviews bring out the dark sides of their subjects, especially regarding their relationships with women. Christopher Meloni tells of meeting a distraught woman in an airport, promising to return and marry her, then not showing up. “Most guys are s**t,” he concludes, as if that’s a justification.

When the script isn’t generalizing about “all” or “most” men, it provides some interesting specifics. Ben Shenkman opens the movie by relating his bizarre habit of yelling “Victory for the forces of democratic freedom!” when he climaxes. Later, he returns to say that when this doesn’t upset the woman he’s with, he doesn’t want to see her again. Bobby Cannavale, an amputee, exploits his one-armed status to score “more pussy than a toilet seat.”

The best story belongs in another movie, since it’s about a father-son relationship and has nothing to do with how either man treats women. Frankie Faison tells how his father (Malcolm Goodwin), whom he hasn’t seen since 1978, worked all his life as a men’s room attendant, serving “men of substance.” Faison is obviously ashamed of his father and ashamed of his own shame, since whatever he’s achieved in life is a result of his father’s efforts.

One of Sara’s students (Dominic Cooper) confronts her about an essay he wrote that received a bad grade. Apparently his premise is that rape, abuse and other degrading experiences can have positive results—the “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” argument. Sara doesn’t buy it, accusing him of only trying to shock. The oddly cut sequence places them in three different locations, as the youth first describes a gang rape that happened to his sister, then says it happened to him. Many scenes are assembled in the editing room in a way Krasinski must have thought cinematic, but will only prove confusing to the average viewer.

Even the cast list is confusing. The 20 or so male characters are identified in the credits only by their subject number in Sarah’s project, even though less than half of them are identified that way in the film. Krasinski does line up some major talents—he must have a lot of friends in the industry (or maybe he promised them guest shots on “The Office”).
 
The genesis of the project is sort of revealed in the final scene, while we get hints of Sara’s motivation throughout. When Ryan (Krasinski), who dumped Sara after cheating on her, returns to explain, she tells him “You [men] are all cowards.”

Whenever Sara goes home, Will Arnett is outside a neighbor’s apartment, pleading to be let in. He must have done something to deserve it; in this movie, women are never at fault. Since John Krasinski wrote and directed it, let’s just say everything that’s wrong with “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” is his fault. 2 STARS