Starring: Renee Humphry, Alicia Witt
Comparisons to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment notwithstanding, Rafal Zielinski's overlooked 1994 film, Fun, is a mature, ambitious adaptation of a theme too often mired in the simple minded.
Fun explores the minds and actions of two teenage girls (Renee Humphry and Alicia Witt) who plot and murder an elderly woman and later claim it was "just for fun." The plot unfolds through the girls' daily counseling sessions - affectionately dubbed "tea time" - at a juvenile detention center. Interspersed among this documentary-like footage (shot in real time, with black and white film) are vividly colored, achronological flashbacks detailing the pair's torrid, one day relationship and violent climax.
What motivates two seemingly ordinary teens to commit such a heinous crime? Zielinski provides no easy answers, only speculation. However, Fun's ambiguity is no cop-out. Reality dictates that only a multitude of deep-rooted, psychological factors would compel such characters to kill, and Zielinski pursues many of these. However, ultimately it is Zielinski's decision not to assign blame on the teens' upbringing or other obvious social factors - panaceas provided by other filmmakers of similar material - that separates Fun from its counterparts. In life, there are seldom clear-cut answers, and Zielinski is wise enough to offer none.
Murder, and the motivations behind it, are not the sole focus of Fun. Zielinski spends equal time examining the unusual relationship between the film's adolescent protagonists, Hillary and Bonnie. Superficially, the characters appear to be total opposites: Hillary, a streetwise, confident leader; Bonnie, a waif-like young girl trapped in a teenager's body. Yet, the two admit bonding in a way best described as "love at first sight." We "get high just on each other's company," Bonnie admits. However, later in the film questions emerge concerning their one-day "love affair." Is their relationship one of friendship or sexual desire? Are Bonnie's tales of her checkered upbringing legitimate or a figment of her elaborate imagination? And, perhaps most importantly, is the cigarette-smoking, tough-talking Hillary really the stronger personality of the two?
Many critics have praised the performances of Witt and Humphry and the accolades are well deserved. The pair command the audience's attention with brutal, emotional, and often ad-libbed dialogue. Their performance, combined with Fun's choppy editing and camera work, creates a mood that is strictly non-Hollywood. In fact, the longer Fun continues, the easier it is to forget that you are watching a work of fiction.
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