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Review Uploaded
05/15/03

1 hr. 37 mins.
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Paul Rudd, Grethchen Mol, Fred Weller
Directed by: Neil LaBute

Rating: *** stars (out of 4 stars)

The word “edginess” wouldn’t have much meaning in cinema if it weren’t for the slyly and subversive antics of filmmaker Neil LaBute. Ever since the daring writer/director raced out of the starting gate and took the movies by storm with his volatile and misogynistic drama In the Company of Men (1997), there has been other off-kilter fare that routinely followed such as Your Friends and Neighbors and the highly underrated dark and quirky Nurse Betty. Since then LaBute has laid low somewhat (although his tepid period piece Possession (2002) didn’t make much of an impact when it was released) but has faithfully bounced back to his sardonic roots with the black comedy relationship piece The Shape of Things.

The Shape of Things enthusiastically promises to get to the matter at hand, that is, to usher out the insensitive and incorrigible conduct of lost souls looking to enhance their lowly existence as sideline social misfits. LaBute is firmly astute and bluntly effective when using his angst-ridden protagonists as perturbed pawns moving in all sorts of directions while having really no place to go. Certainly this moviemaker knows how to push the caustic human buttons and his moviemaking manipulation is the distinctive calling card that is so affecting in his dandy yet duplicitous ditties. “Shape” is rather slight as compared to LaBute’s earlier creative cruelty-based concoctions but it nevertheless is a twisted celebration in the bonding of misguided personalities feverishly searching for that elusive emotional completeness.

LaBute’s Shape is based upon his own stage play of the same name. In the big screen adaptation, we meet nerdy and nervous museum security guard Adam (Paul Rudd). He’s a slightly roly-poly and awkward undergraduate English major working at the Mercy College museum to make ends meet. Anyway, Adam stumbles upon opinionated feminist art student Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) while she’s contemplating the thought of defacing the school gallery’s graphic phallic-enhanced statue with a red spray paint can. Apparently Evelyn has some issues with the radical notion of censorship and she’s looking to make her viewpoint emphatically toward the stuffy university brass by altering the “protruding male artwork”.

Naturally, the insecure Adam is intrigued by the defiant Evelyn and soon falls under her rambunctious spell. The couple converse a bit then eventually decide to go out on a date and see where their unlikely union takes them. It appears that the feisty Evelyn has a psychological hold on Adam to the extent that he changes his whole physical makeup-he rejuvenates himself by reinventing a whole new persona where he loses weight and cuts out the annoying personal habits that kept him imprisoned in his previous flabby shell.

Although Evelyn is clearly the motivating factor for Adam to get his act together, one is left wondering whether or not the former pudgy peon should have made the physical and mental adjustments to his lonely livelihood because HE needed to for the sake of himself and not just to appease the attention of a flippant female? Better yet, does Evelyn’s romantic association with the new and improved Adam scream legitimacy or is he simply one of the essential convenient “things” to feed into her prosperous albeit selfish agenda?

The noticeable transformation of Adam may be beneficial to him and welcoming to his rabble-rousing honeybun Evelyn but the change in attitude and rationale has left those close to the newly developed rogue in a cold state of shock. Adam has a durable friendship with a lovely gal named Jenny (Gretchen Mol). However, their bond is compromised thanks to Adam’s disagreeable demeanor. Furthermore, these longtime pals actually share an unrealized intimacy that would suggest that they be the ultimate kissing mates. But Adam pledges his devotion to the controlling Evelyn while Jenny is slated to marry her insufferable Neanderthal man Phillip (Fred Weller) in a hilariously tacky underwater ceremony. Incidentally, the boorish Phillip is a former roommate of the once-shy Adam. Hence, we’re thrust into this four-way romantic roadblock.

If the audience is shrewd enough to catch on to LaBute’s stylized take on the Biblical Adam-Eve angle complete with the contemporary references of deceptive dynamics concerning male-female sexual tension (not to mention the trivial motif of plastered fig leafs and the celebrated male member) then they definitely deserve the cinematic booby prize. As usual, LaBute has a warped skilled sense pertaining to the manner in which he allows the shady areas of both genders to wallow in their disillusion and subliminal disdain for one another. There’s always that common element of sensationalism that dictates how he’ll go about adding more salt to the proverbial wound in terms of highlighting the uncertainty and dissatisfaction of how the sexes methodically embrace their contrasting perception of each another.

The focused cast work diligently to give some verve and complexity to the quirky collegiate couples drama. Rudd is on the mark as the hapless hero that turns from ugly duckling to debonair dove as he’s redirected to his sudden attractiveness courtesy of the sparked interests of an intriguing young woman set in her militant mode. Weisz brings a dash of mystery and self-righteousness as the verbal Evelyn whose sassiness is convincing enough to make any guy jump start himself out of an everlasting malaise. Both Mol and Weller are complimentary as supporting players that bring their brand of frolic and frustration to the proceedings.

LaBute’s script is sharp and insightful as it stays true to the confines of its four principle players and their selected dilemma in terms of how they deal with the growth (or stagnation) of their on-going partnerships. Despite the threat of LaBute’s narrative being considered too sketchy based on the fact that a handful of actors are left to carry the burden of the happenings, surprisingly the results are vibrantly executed thanks to the balanced performances that make us forget how thinly conceived this project could have been since it was originally designed for the intimate setting of the stage.

As mentioned previously, The Shape of Things is not necessarily one of LaBute’s heavy-hitting acerbic profiles that delightfully lead us down the depraved driveway per se but it does convey the cynical spirit of presenting us with how complicated and comical the rigors of unconventional love can be sometimes. With delicious dialogue, robust wry performances and an imaginative outlook on how we as flawed beings can relate to our sexual expectations, things certainly Shape up in LaBute’s preposterous yet pithy universe.