Product Description

Theater instructor jerry stars an affair with mary and that starts a chain of events that affect their respective partners terri and barry and other friends creating a web of relationships. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/24/2004 Starring: Jason Patric Ben Stiller Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R Director: Neil Labute

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28028 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2003-09-23
• Rating: NC-17
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
In the age of ever-increasing crassness on screen (see the Farrelly brothers' comedies), there are some filmmakers who can make serious commentary instead of just throwaway gags. Neil LaBute's second feature is a corkscrew comedy of savage, bitter people who can't find happiness in many a thing, let alone sex. The film is not as tight or commanding as his first feature, the black-hearted In the Company of Men, but he gives six nameless characters six juicy parts with plenty to talk about. The emotional punch is devastating for those trying to find love and happiness on celluloid. One wife and husband (Amy Brenneman, Men's Aaron Eckhart) are nice people, living in a dream home, who can't connect sexually. Drama teacher Ben Stiller and live-in girlfriend Catherine Keener may just work out if, well, he didn't talk all the time. Stiller confesses his love for best friend Eckhart's wife; Keener starts an affair with artist assistant Nastassja Kinski. Then there's Jason Patric (who also produced) as a calculating, misogynistic doctor who has not had a peer on film or theater since David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago (which took a different film form as About Last Night...). Manipulative and forward, he's the white-hot core to LaBute's fire and has the monologue of the year to boot. LaBute's callous films aren't for everybody, but there is an art and clear-headedness to his work that most American independent filmmakers can't create on screen. Note: the six characters speak the only lines in the film, although through careful editing it never seems this way. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Another dirty comedy of bad manners from director Neil LaBute. The contemptuous heroes of his last picture, "In the Company of Men," were venal enough, but, compared to the inhabitants of the new movie, they seem about as noxious as the Hardy Boys. This time we are introduced to two couples: Mary (Amy Brenneman) lives with Barry (Aaron Eckhart), while Terri (Catherine Keener) lives with Jerry (Ben Stiller). Jerry starts an affair with Mary (what does she see in him?), Terri falls for a gallery assistant called Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), and Barry, the only sensible one, continues to have sex with himself. It's hard to care about the damage these people do to each other, since most of it will strike the audience as richly deserved. LaBute's attempt to follow in the footsteps of Restoration comedy is undercut by the fact that his dialogue is only fitfully funny, and you can't help but feel soured by the flat, ritualistic look of the action. The one enlivening performance comes, surprisingly, from Jason Patric; he plays a good-looking monster named Cary, and he has the nerve to suggest that, in a glum world, he's actually having fun. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Definitely not entertaining..
by any stretch of the viewers' imagination! Director Neil LaBute does not seek to entertain, but to expose, in this morality play, I think.

There are six players in the film version of social-sexual arrogance. Initially, you view them with varying degrees of interest, but by the end of the film, you dislike all of them, some more than most.

LaBute, with slightly more budget than he had for his breakthrough debut, "In the Company of Men" (ICM), uses it wisely to attract excellent role-players, then films it well, in all indoor, and slightly claustrophobic settings. He continues his theme of the cruelty of the alpha male, to both the other sex, and his own male friends.

Although each of the actors plays well (I particularly liked Aaron Eckhart, playing against type and doing a "180" from his role in ICM, as a poorly groomed, chubby and needy husband and friend) there is no question that the film is sought out by film afficianados to observe the performance of Jason Patric.
From the opening scene, Patric makes your skin crawl at the depths of his ability to hate the fairer sex. His hold over Stiller & Eckhart's characters is resonant in the fascinating steam room scene. Patric, deliberately cruel, is self-assured enough to fall into reverie about his infliction of power in a past homosexual rape. His intensity and believability make you wonder why Colin Farrell is getting all the good roles when Patric is a far more powerful actor.

In this film, LaBute does not exceed his earlier work (ICM) but puts us on warning that he is a force to be reckoned with in filmmaking.

A caution; most filmgoers will abhor this film. My recommendation is to see it for the experience, not the entertainment.

Serious exploration of self-centeredness
This film follows the interrelations of six "friends" as they grope for self-fulfillment, usually at each other's expense. This is a grim, often ugly exploration of selfishness, featuring characters that somehow never developed the sense of empathy or generosity that enables one human being to connect with another on more than a superficial level. They equate being happy with being in a position of power over others wherein they are able to gratify their urges of the moment. When their behavior fails to make them happy, they become more jaded and sad and convinced that happiness is only a fantasy. A possible exception is the chilling sociopath played by Jason Patric, who appears to be entirely satisfied with his reprehensible conduct. In a cast of dislikable characters, he emerges as one of the most loathsome figures I have ever seen in a film. Perhaps not coincidentally, he is also the alpha among the film's male characters.

Director/writer Neil LaBute's dialogue is sharp and telling. This is a serious and courageous exploration of the dark side of human nature.

Dark, comical, and disturbing
I liked this movie because it is original, and you get very absorbed in the characters. The acting is very good, the story ties together, and it holds your attention. Best of all, at least for those who appreciate dark humor, this is very comical. It is, in my personal opinion, a brilliant, well directed film.