I Melt with You


   
Be Careful What You Promise

   Director Mark Pellington crafted a Glenn Porter screenplay, which employed four good actors, into a film that did not have to be made. Director Pellington took 129 minutes of my time to show how four best friends can spend a week, which was an annual event, this time in a rented beach house in the Big Sur region of California, and nothing good could come from it. Even the titular song, "I Melt With You" by 80's glam band, Modern English, which ran as the background to the climatic end - the running of the credits - was a song that should have never been made. What melodic drivel?

   Was this useless song allegorical to these four best friends': Thomas Jane as Richard, Jeremy Piven as Ron, Rob Lowe as Jonathan and Christian McKay as Tim, useless lives? Were these four Amigo's useless lives allegorical to the near certainty that one's life is fraught with disappointment or a crippling sadness?

   Possibly; however, it is my opinion that Director Pellington just inadvertently showed us how some intelligent people will become self-indulgent pitiable wastes, rather than understanding their true essential value, and put it to good use as a productive member of society. This was not the case in this film.

   In this film of profound sadness, these four lead characters each found a way to wallow in their own pitiful misery. Each character had failed, or was in the process of failing in life: Richard wanted to "write the great American novel," but ended up teaching middle school literature, Ron became a dishonest portfolio manager, with the regulatory "wolves at the door," Jonathan was a physician, who made his medical mark as the doctor in "doctor shopping," and Tim was a bad driver, who wrecked his car - killing his sister and his gay lover. This was a weird soup of lost souls, and at the heart of their week away from reality in their wasted worlds was a tidal wave of narcotics.
Thomas Jane as Richard: I loved Jane in "The Punisher," and on HBO's "Hung:" Above. Jeremy Piven as Ron: Piven was the campus ringleader of cool in the near-classic "PCU:" Below.


Rob Lowe as Jonathan: Whether it's drama or comedy, Lowe has grown into a credible acting talent: Above. Christian McKay as Tim: McKay was fantastic as the "Citizen Kane" era Orson Welles in the interestingly good film, "Me and Orson Welles:" Below. All of these pictured actors, above and below, are good actors, and acted well in this film. It just was not a very good film.


    If the producers of this film wanted to make a public service commentary on the devastating effects of illicit drugs, they succeeded. If they were using these four friend's constant use of prescription pills, cocaine and weed as allegorical to how the engine of a reckless world beats creative, intelligent folk into a pitiable pulp, they failed.
Destructive hopelessness, brought on by illicit use of narcotics, written all over their faces.

   Why did they fail?

    These characters were totally unsympathetic. No sensible person is going to care about what is the eventual outcome of these self-indulgent, destructive cry-babies, who trample upon their greatest gift - their own human existence.

    Watching them become self-consumed in their decadent deliverance into Hell was like watching an impending train wreck - I could not look away. I just hate that I needed to spend so much of my valuable time to do so.

   Rated R. Released in theaters December 9, 2011.




Comments

( December 10th, 2011 @ 2:23 pm )
Bob Dylan did say, and sing that.

As someone, who just missed being called to duty in Vietnam, I truly appreciate what you did there, and all others like you, who did the same, I appreciate them too.

I said that.
( December 10th, 2011 @ 2:14 pm )
Some of us certainly had to in my generation, and then there was ... the hippies.

Any you know, some of them that I met, then knew were really nice guys; however, they just did not get the big picture, which often is just the duty and sacrifice for the greater good, which sometimes is rather nebulous. Still, when one is called they must answer.

Sometimes I believe just answering that call my be a very big part of the greater good. Regardless, you have to serve somebody. I believe Dylan said that.
( December 10th, 2011 @ 2:06 pm )
Yeah, it's just like Paula Cole's "Where have all the Cowboys Gone?"

Where is my John Wayne
Where is my prairie son
Where is my happy ending
Where have all the cowboys gone

Some times men should just grow a pair, and move on.
( December 10th, 2011 @ 1:50 pm )
Of the 129 minutes of the film's run time, about 25 minutes was of men crying or fixing to cry, and the most notable emotional response elicited from me was: What a passel of pussies.

There was no crying on the Ticonderoga during 'Nam. Even when one our buddies did not return from a mission, we suffered in silence, and maybe that is not what one should do - keep it all bottled up, but on the other hand, grown men can't walk around all teary eyed, remorseful, when there is a job to be done.
( December 10th, 2011 @ 1:39 pm )
Wyatt,

After reading your review, I checked out the trailer, and pieces of the film that I found laying around, and I did notice a good many scenes of men crying.

Juxtapose that against the fact that just this week, some of us recognized the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the sacrifice of these men and women at Pearl, and the continued sacrifice of an entire nation, as the U.S.A. marched to wage war against total evil.
( December 9th, 2011 @ 9:04 pm )
I fully realize that it is considered bad form to kick something when it's down, but something inside me wants to scream out: What were you thinking about by making a movie with the title, "I Melt with You"?

And if anyone had any question about the titular phrase, where it came from, they played the song during the credits. If one knows anything about this insipid song by Modern English, you have to know in is anything but inspirational ... really bad music, terrible, talent less drivel.

The film really was doomed as soon as the script was written. One still has to question: Just why was this film made?




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