By the time I was a grade-schooler, "wicked" had become a synonym for "cool," "awesome," that sort of thing. The new straight-to-video release Wicked could warp the meaning of the word again; if the film is popular with kids, which is not out of the question since it stars Julia Stiles, soon all things mystifying will earn an aggrieved "wicked!" from the leaders of tomorrow. There is an old sarcasm: "What do you need, a roadmap?" Here's a movie about a Lolita, a Humbert, a murdered shrew, and a hard-boiled detective that isn't a cakewalk--the behaviour of Wicked's characters is always slightly off, one degree to the right of making sense. Because of this (as well as the more-desperate-than-their-looks-indicate female leads), it makes an interesting, if ill-advised, companion piece to Someone Like You, a pathetic mess starring Ashley Judd as a PG-rated Candace Bushnell.
Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998, Wicked was shelved until Stiles' recent career ascendancy gave marketers something to exploit, though that something is an obscenely young-looking Stiles in courtesan make-up, an image that is not so much taboo titillating as grotesque. ("Evil Never Looked So Good," goes the tagline!) She plays Ellie, a bratty teenager who hates her sex-crazed mother (Chelsea Field) but starts to take on similar qualities after ma's homicide-by-tragedy mask. (Comedy, the grizzled investigator (Michael Parks) points out, is missing--boy, is he wrong.) Ellie begins slinking into Daddy's (William R. Moses) bed at night and seeing him off in the mornings while draped in a silk slip. When Daddy proves ultimately unattainable, she seeks escape from a hunky layabout (Patrick Muldoon) across the street, her mother's ex-lover.
Is Ellie possessed? (Dunno.) Troubled? (Obviously.) Character motive has rarely been so indecipherable in such a Poison Ivy affair, boring us to distraction more than anything else. Michael Steinberg brought sensitivity to The Waterdance some years ago, or maybe that was all his paraplegic co-director Neal Jimenez, on whose rehabilitation the film was based; Steinberg pushes Wicked along to the end like the parent of a reluctant child on the first day of school. Were it to be released theatrically right now it would bring harm to Stiles' career, although she isn't terrible, just miscast. (Her rendition of a sexy pout is too insolent.) A great many movies miss a spectacular opportunity, and Wicked's is the coupling of Parks' detective and Linda Hart's neighbour lady, a mature romance that's resigned to a few glances exchanged at a morning-after breakfast. Both Parks and Hart deserve starring roles--together in the same picture sounds like a wonderful idea.
So did 'Ashley Judd in a romantic comedy'; I'm tired of seeing the same old beaming faces. Unfortunately, Judd's a fine dramatic actress (think Meg, Julia, or Sandra could've/would've done Normal Life, even in their early careers?), and the shallow world presided over by Nora Ephron is as Michael Corleone's mafia: it pulls stars back in. Judd may never act again, for all intents and purposes. Based on a book called "Animal Husbandry", Someone Like You (thanks for the re-title, but could it be more generic?) puts Judd through the paces as Jane Goodale, a talk show handler whose disastrous fling with co-worker Ray (Greg Kinnear) inspires her to research patterns of male behaviour in the animal kingdom. (If I were chimp expert Jane Goodall I'd relish the thought of suing.) With womanizing roommate Eddie (Hugh Jackman) an up-close-and-personal test subject, Jane's hobby becomes such an obsession that her magazine editor friend (Marisa Tomei) solicits a (pseudonymous--can't have a climactic revelation unless) column.
During Jane's first time with Ray, there are cutaways to little girls in front of a chalkboard defining words like "lust," yet the established language of the film isn't conducive to fantastic non-sequiturs, nor does director Tony Goldwyn commit to them as a motif thereafter. And there's a shortage of scenes that actually advance the action, as if the filmmakers knew their paradigm was so overworked that they spared us the most obvious but also most integral moments: solid pre-epilogue indication that Eddie and Jane's feelings for each other have moved out of the platonic realm, for example. Someone Like You becomes a real pile of gibberish in its final act. I'll spare you its details--the film sure does. Suffice it to say, it's wicked!
Wicked is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen presentations on opposite sides of a Columbia Tri-Star DVD. Some flecking occurs and the picture is quite indistinct in the blue-hued night shots, but overall, this is a very respectable transfer of an indie. The 2.0 Dolby Surround audio is sufficient, even effective, thanks in no small part to Cliff Martinez' Danny Elfman-esque wrap-around score. (The cover's claim of 5.1 audio is incorrect.) Wicked includes limited filmographies and trailers for, well, Wicked, plus U-Turn, Cruel Intentions 2, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Devil's Own.
Fox's Someone Like You ought to shame Wicked in the video department: it's newer and a higher-budgeted production. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer has a damning plugged-up quality, however, that softens textures and decreases luminosity. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is inactive, though it achieves convincing atmosphere with a New Year's Eve celebration. In the extras department, Someone Like You has Wicked (and a thousand other DVDs) beat, starting with a sharp and blessedly unpretentious feature-length commentary by Tony Goldwyn. Throughout, he admits to struggling to find the film's tenor, and he checks his ego at the door in separate optional commentary for the ludicrous alternate ending (in which Jane, searching for Eddie, knows immediately to find him on the roof of their loft, even though he hadn't once been up there in the course of the film). Seven other noticeably removed deleted or extended scenes come with or with incisive Goldwyn contributions. The last of the supplemental material: a promotional featurette; five TV spots; and an annoying trailer.
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