Day eighty-six: The Face of Love (June, 3)

Still a little bit under the weather, I was yet one more time browsing the Cable TV channels when I stopped in The Face of Love. I stayed there, trying to get my breath back, and ended up watching the whole movie.

At first, I thought that would be nice to see a film with Ed Harris, that I like and haven't seen in the screen for a while. His character is sweet, sensible, hurt, it wasn't difficult. The problem was Annette Bening's Nikki. Or, better, the actual issue here would be the screenwriter's abduction at some point of the production. That's an explanation for the wreck of a interesting plot. 

I missed this movie at its premiere because it seemed a bit silly for me - the Portuguese title didn't help - A new chance for love. Albeit the original title, when explained in the final scenes, is not helpful either. Everything turns to awful at the end, actually. Hence the said abduction above. But it is sad that just before the shipwreck of a potentially good story with a good cast there is a strong scene that gives us hope that the movie will be able to deliver after all. But that was just illusion. The last scene came, and all the interesting aspects in this movie went straight to hell. Do you think I'm overreacting? I'm being delicate, in fact. 

Pier Paolo Pasolini said, in Heretical Empiricism, that the meaning of a life is in its end, death. Movies, are a life in itself, are the same. The final editing, and especially the final scene, gives its meaning. It's sad to say that a last moment in life or a lousy last scene can ruin a life and a movie. But it happens in both instances. Of course, there are many possibilities of interpretations  and different ways to relate to each. As life, movies are not a closed deal. But its end says a lot about it. I think that the screenwriter was so anxious to give a high meaning to his story that he actually did just the opposite. Another thought that occurred to me is that he wasn't brave enough to commit to his story. Therefore, The Face of Love ending was so incongruous and rushed and silly that spoiled the whole film to me. 

When I searched stills for The Face of Love, this pic came up... and I'm still so
annoyed by the movie that it looked better for me than any scene from the movie :)

The Face of Love. Directed by Arie Posin.  With: Annette Bening, Ed Harris,
Robin Williams. Writers: Matthew McDuffie, Arie Posin (I'm not sure who was
abducted here. Maybe both. Or neither. Maybe that was just a bad day at the office
after all). US, 2013, Dolby Digital, Color (Cable TV).

PS: Love obsession usually results in strong movies, if there isn't a silly pursuit for meaning or redemption, as is the case in The Face of Love. One of these good movies is Womb, 2010, with Matt Smith and the always stunning and weirdly amazing Eva Green. Benedek Fliegauf had no fear to tell his story. And it is visceral and disturbing till the end. 

PPS: It has been two days of angry reactions to characters - Brook and Nikki weren't easy people to deal with. Sometimes I get really upset at a movie, so much that the slight mention to it annoys me all over again. It was like that with Closer,  2003, a renowned movie by Mike Nichols that I simply detest. The characters are messed up to a level that they are insufferable. And I'm always in good terms with messed people, being one myself. But those characters were too annoying and silly. At some point in the movie I had the urge to cut the screen in pieces, so angry I was. Call me crazy, but movies can strongly get me mad like that.