* * * (out of 4)
This has been a lousy year for independent films, and don't let anyone tell you different. It's been a year where the theaters are cluttered with those so-called "quirky" comedies about men, women and relationships which often aspire to clever repartee but wind up manhandling the audience and ramming some puerile message down their collective throats in a vain attempt to be jolly and heartwarming.
You know exactly what I'm talking about. This is the year of The Tao of Steve, You Can Count On Me and Loser. Movies of the Kevin Smith generation minus Smith's earnestness, eager to cash in on the commercial horse. Not surprisingly, audiences aren't falling for the bait.
At first, Jon Reiss' debut feature Cleopatra's Second Husband seems to fall into that same trap. Kooky music is playing on the soundtrack, the "look" of the film is fairly generic as far as indie flicks go and the situation is broadly comic. A husband and wife who are having trouble communicating decide to go on vacation, leaving their house in the hand of two degenerate slobs who will demolish their home (then their entire stinking lives! Nyah hah hah!)
It sounds like fodder for a sketch comedy troupe, but already there are some small indications that this movie, unlike the mantra of American Beauty, will actually go deeper into some unsettling territory.
Isn't it strange that husband Robert (Paul Hipp, from Waking the Dead and countless Abel Ferrara movies) enjoys photographing dead animals for his exhibitions? Also, don't you find it odd that his wife, Hallie (Bitty Schram) is so obsessed with having a baby that they only "do it" during her ovulation cycle? These aren't cute little quirks, folks - these small references are indications that slowly, resolutely this movie will get under the skin.
It may seem like we're in the realm of "wacky" comedy trusting Robert's pristine mint house, his beautiful fish and lovely brown dog in the hands of bullying frat boy swine Zack (wily Boyd Kestner) and his trashy sensual girl-toy Sophie (Radha Mitchell, from High Art). Sure enough, when Robert and Hallie cut their vacation short after a surprise phone call - a gallery wants to show his dead animal photos - they return to find their home in shambles. It's a stock comedy moment.
