17 July 2017

One-Liners: Odd Couples


BEATRIZ AT DINNER (B) - Writer Mike White and director Miguel Arteta re-team for another of their stories about a flawed, determined woman battling her own demons as well as the powers that be.

Here, Salma Hayek is the earnest striver, Beatriz, a physical therapist and new-age healer who falls into the orbit of the well-to-do by virtue of helping treat a couple's daughter who suffered from cancer. When we meet Beatriz, she is massaging Cathy (Connie Britton from TV's "Nashville"), and afterward, when Beatriz's beater won't start, Cathy invites her to dinner, which is a snooty business affair with two other couples.

The center of attention is Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a Trump-like developer who has no guilt about his ravaging of the environment and local economies. Beatriz, as the fish out of water, becomes the truth-teller at this gathering of boorish elites. Lithgow digs his fangs into the role without playing it broad or farcical. He and Hayek perform a fascinating pas de deux, as actors and through their characters.

White and Arteta first teamed for "Chuck & Buck" (2002) and followed it two years later with "The Good Girl," with Jennifer Aniston in the familiar role of snakebit striver. The pair reunited a few years ago for one of the best TV shows of the past decade, HBO's "Enlightened" (starring Laura Dern as a bumbling force of nature). Here, Hayek digs deep into the soul of Beatriz, creating layers that keep this from descending into a Stooges-like pie fight between the snobs and the hoi polloi.

The supporting cast, corralled by Britton's subtle effort, lights up the edges of the screen. Chloe Sevigny and Jay Duplass are a delight as an airhead couple who have stumbled into riches. (Her entrance -- scoffing at the gravel in the driveway -- sets a snippy tone early.) Amy Landecker ("Enough Said," "A Serious Man") lags a bit as Doug's tolerably middle-aged trophy wife.

A narrative trick near the movie's climax feels like a bit of a cheat, but by that point the film has earned respect, and the point of this polemic has already been made. Enjoy Hayek and the gang as they toss around White's intellectual football.

HATESHIP LOVESHIP (2014) (C+) - Kristen Wiig is a bizarre curiosity in this trifle about a wallflower striving to make something of her life, despite the obviously poor choices she has made over the years and the obstacles others create for her.

Wiig is sad sack Johanna Parry, a home health-care aide who dutifully sees to the final moments of her longtime elderly ward in the opening scene. Her next assignment is to take care of snotty teen Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld), who lives with her gruff grandfather (Nick Nolte, particularly gruff) after her mother dies and her father, Ken (Guy Pearce), struggles with a drug addiction back in Chicago. Sabitha and her androgynous pal, Edith (Sami Gayle, TV's "Blue Bloods"), think it would be a hoot to trick Johanna into thinking that Ken has a crush on Johanna and is wooing her via email.

Johanna falls for the ruse and lands on the doorstep of Ken, who is supposed to be rehabbing a motel but is merely flopping in it and whoring around with the despicable enabler Chloe (a nicely understated Jennifer Jason Leigh). Johanna, embarrassed and appalled, is determined to try to make a go of things anyway. She dutifully tends to Ken and the rundown digs, with a simplistic obsequiousness somewhere in the range of Rain Man and Forrest Gump.

You might not make it that far in this undercooked drama from director Liza Johnson, based on an Alice Munro short story. Wiig shows little range in a zombie-like performance. She was delightfully quirky in "Welcome to Me," pointedly dour in "The Skeleton Twins," and sharp and complex in "Nasty Baby" and "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." But here she struggles to find a compelling voice, and Johnson seems to be of no assistance. The tone seems off throughout.

Nolte and Pearce are workmanlike, and Christine Lahti is a sight for sore eyes in a minor role. Steinfeld and Gayle bring little to the proceedings, fumbling the tension between the teens that feels forced. This one has a payoff at the end, but it's a chore to sit through its 104-minute length.

BONUS TRACKS
"Hateship Loveship" boasts a fine classic-country soundtrack, including nuggets old (George Jones' "Why Baby Why") and more recent ("I'm Getting Known (For All the Wrong Reasons" by Larry Dean), blaring from a rattle-trap radio. The best of the lot comes at the end, from Tammy Wynette, "Til I Get It Right":


 

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