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JULIET, NAKED
Director: Jesse Peretz Cast: Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O'Dowd, Lily Brazier, Azhy Robertson, Ayoola Smart MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:45 Release Date: 8/17/18 (limited); 8/24/18 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 23, 2018 There's a trio of characters at the heart of Juliet, Naked, and only one of them is particularly interesting. That's not to fully dismiss the stories of the other two, although the movie does that job for us in the case of one of them. The basic layout is that there's a woman, her boyfriend, and the former rock star whose life and career are the boyfriend's obsessions. There are a few ways that this story could go, and to its credit, the screenplay by Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor, and Tamara Jenkins (based on Nick Hornby's novel) mostly avoids the more predictable routes. It also doesn't find a path that includes all of these characters in an equal way. The boyfriend, for example, mostly disappears by the wayside once the rock star starts down the story's path. It's as if the screenwriters are trying to evade the temptation to include him, lest his role become (more of) a clichéd one. He could be jealous of the musician or his now-former girlfriend, or he could be awestruck into understanding that, of course, his ex-girlfriend would be romantically interested in the musician. After all, the boyfriend's own obsession is a kind of love. Maybe it's better that Duncan (Chris O'Dowd), the boyfriend, isn't included much here, although it is strange that the story of the movie begins and ends with his obsession. He seems far more important at the start than he turns out to be in the big picture here. From a small town in England, he runs a website that fawns over Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), a '90s alternative rocker from the States who made one well-received album and disappeared from the spotlight in the middle of a performance. Duncan has spent decades looking for information on the rock star and commiserating with fellow Crowe-philes on the site. Annie (Rose Byrne), Duncan's girlfriend of many years, doesn't get it, but she sees Duncan's preoccupation with a faded rocker as one of those things that you just accept when you're in a relationship with someone you love. That's nice in theory, but in practice, Annie just seems stuck. She becomes the focus for a while, as her own life, being quietly frustrated with Duncan's inability to see anything beyond his fandom, and career, running the museum that was once run by her late father in her small town, seems to have no direction that doesn't involve somebody else. Things kind of change when she leaves a negative comment about Crowe's early recording sessions for the album on Duncan's website. Duncan takes it personally and leaves her for another woman. Crowe, who occasionally looks at the site to laugh at the theories about what happened to him, sends her an approving email. The two start a correspondence in which both of them feel safe to tell the truth. This section of the movie is its strongest, as we delve into the lives and feelings of these characters without any external pressure. It's simply two people talking about their mistakes, their faded dreams, their shared feeling of having no real direction anymore, and their hope that some shred of actual hope might come their way. We get a real sense of these two characters in a way that no plot—be it a romantic triangle or the complications of a long-distance romance—could communicate as effectively. We understand Annie's frustrations better, as she discusses her history of being like a mother to a younger sister (played by Lily Brazier) and then to a long-term boyfriend. She and Duncan had decided not to have any children, and now she regrets that she won't be an actual mother to someone else. Then there's Tucker's life, which is miserable in ways that even he can't seem to comprehend fully. He has a number of children, most of whom he doesn't see and don't know they have siblings, and ex-wives. He lives in the garage of his most recent ex, where he gets by on the royalty payments from his album—meaning he's living by not doing anything. Tucker wants to start anew by being a present and active father with his youngest son Jackson (Azhy Robertson), but time has gotten away from him so much that he's shocked to discover he's about to a grandfather, too, thanks to a daughter (played by Ayoola Smart) who lives in London. The pregnant daughter, of course, gives Tucker an excuse to visit Annie, and that's when the movie starts to lose its way. It's fine to see these two characters meet and grow closer, but there's now the added pressure of an inevitable romance (which, admittedly, the movie doesn't treat as a foregone conclusion) and the inevitable reappearance of Duncan, who, by this point, is just excess baggage for the real story (The screenwriters seem keenly aware of this and don't insert any extraneous conflict involving him). We like Annie enough (Byrne is charming as usual in the role), but the real star of the story is Tucker, who's played by Hawke with an effortless combination of idleness, regret, and a genuine desire to make things right in his life. At times, one wishes this were Tucker's story on its own, but Juliet, Naked tries for more. As a result, it only succeeds a little less than two-thirds of the time. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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