The Anniversary Party

When you think about digital video you think ultra-low budget films with no-name actors and even more no-name directors. This is the format for film students and people who just can’t afford film, right? Well, George Lucas is changing all of that with Episode II. He’s filming a large portion of that little flick using Sony’s new digital camera.

But before Georgie can get his out and before the Polish brothers got their new one out (Jackpot, filmed with the same camera), Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming gathered up three million dollars and a few of their buddies and made this little flick about a couple, Sally and Joe (Leigh and Cumming), who are celebrating their sixth anniversary. They had broken up for a while, but got back together just months before the big date.

Now their friends are helping them celebrate, but everything is falling apart around them. Joe is a novelist who is directing his first feature based on his newest book. Sally is a popular actress who is at the age where no one wants to hire her. Not even her husband for a role that everyone knows was based on her. Instead he has hired Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), a young actress who Sally is VERY jealous of and thinks that Joe is going to run off to fuck her every chance he gets. (Strong relationship, huh? But they really do love each other.) And then there’s the director of Sally’s current film (John C. Riley) whose wife (Jane Adams from Wonder Boys and Happiness) is a speed freak and is obsessed with her pager that only her babysitter seems to have the number for. Sally’s co-star (Kevin Kline) and his wife (Pheobe Cates in her first, and probably only movie since 1994′s Princess Cariboo) brought their kids along. They’re so absorbed with themselves and their family that they hardly realize that their friends’ lives are falling apart right before their eyes. But they’re good people and they try to help out as much as possible when they finally realize what’s going on.

Joe’s publisher (John Benjamin Hickey from General’s Daughter, Bone Collector and Love! Valour! Compassion!) and his wife (Parker Posey) invited Joe and Sally’s next door neighbors (Denis O’Hare from Sweet And Lowdown and Mina Badie, Jennifer’s half-sister from Mrs. Parker and Georgia) to create a little publicity. Denis is also an author and they have been feuding about Joe’s dog for the last year or so. Now they’re supposed to make nice, but that’s not so easy.

Sally’s best friend (Michael Panes, who was billed as a creative consultant for MTV’s Austin Stories…too bad he’s not even from Austin!) is a Peter Sellers look-alike who is always depressed about the current girl he’s after. One of his first lines is in response to Sally being happy that he brought his violin. “Actually it’s a machine gun. I was thinking about shooting myself.” Depressed as he was he ended up being one of the funnier characters.

(In a telling bit of personal info, as soon as he started talking my friend bumped me and said, “Hey, you’re in this!” Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing. I’m every bit as witty and funny as that dude!)

So that’s the story. There’s an added bit about Joe’s sister and Sally’s pregnancy that doesn’t exist, and those do end up being major parts of the plot, but the main point is the characters themselves. Joe and Sally are very well drawn and we really believe that these two people really love each other, it’s just hard for them to put their egos aside and really be IN love with each other.

The rest of the characters are just secondary and only take up little snippets of time from Joe and Sally. They’re almost just sketches of real people. (And I seriously hope that Jennifer and Alan didn’t base Kevin and Phoebe’s characters on them. I didn’t really like them that much. And, yes, those are really their kids.)

The only problem with the movie itself is that it seemed to drag after a while. I kept thinking, “How many crises can these people have?” It probably should have been cut by about 15-20 minutes. Other than that Jennifer and Alan did a great job writing, producing, directing and acting in this little flick.

Now, a note to theatre managers everywhere. (Sort of.)The print that I saw of this was HORRIBLE!! Since it’s shot on video I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t with someone who saw it in a good theatre in New York. She said that it looked and sounded great there. Here it was dark, a little washed out and the sound was terrible. There were moments when the music (interesting music, by the way-mostly sounded like 60s lounge music) drowned out the dialogue! And there were scratches all over the end of it. (A fact that was pointed out ad nauseum by my theatre snob buddy. He works the Telluride Film Festival every year so, of course, he’s an expert and has to show it off. Of course that didn’t mean a damn thing to me when he drowned out a couple of lines of dialogue more than the music ever did. Isn’t that right, buddy?-He’ll be happy that I mentioned him.)

Overlooking the bad print, this was a great little movie. I can’t wait to see it on DVD where I can actually see it the way it was meant to be seen.