8 MM

PREMISE: A private investigator, Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage), becomes entangled in the seamy world of underground pornography while investigating a snuff film's origins -- a film in which a teenage girl is brutally murdered.

DEFINING MOMENT: Welles buys an armload of pornography in proprieter Max Kalifornia's (Joaquim Phoenix) store, for research purposes. Max offers him an "interesting" impulse purchase.

WHAT WORKS

• Phoenix as Welles' quasi-partner. Though he's mired in the porn scene, he's not of it. He's a frustrated musician who's made a lot of connections, but no successful career moves.
• The script, by Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, is appropriately gritty and sports some effective, though typical, tough-guy lines like, "You dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes you."
• The frank discussions and depictions of seamy porn. Though leather S&M, bondage, and scatological porn have been incorrectly lumped together with bestiality and snuff.
• The concept that the snuff film is an urban legend. Whose to say it's true or not? Have you seen Faces of Fear? Is it real?
• Welles' dogged perservance. The script depicts this aspect of his personality well.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK

• Cage is too controlled throughout most of the film, to the point of being uninteresting. The choice is understandable: the assumption is that to be successful, a private eye's demeanor has to be low-key in order to keep a low profile. But Cage is so low profile, until the third act, that he nearly falls off the radar.
• The predictable nature of the script. There's a plodding nature to the story's unfolding, and we can foresee nearly every major plot point.
• So much attention is paid to Cage and his investigation (all right, it's the thrust of the script) and so much life is invested in Max Kalifornia and the bad guys (especially Peter Stormare), that everyone else pales significantly by comparison.
• Sequence of events. Welles visits a Catholic orphanage in L.A. and strikes gold, but this find comes after several scenes with Kalifornia that lead nowhere. This loose end is never tied up.
• Anthony Heald is horribly miscast as Longdale, the prim lawyer with a seedy side. He's a Schumacher company player, though, and keeps getting meatier roles as time goes by.
• Director Joel Schumacher's pacing seems a little off. Blind alleys (a Mexican porn shop, an underground "flea market") with no payoffs are compounded by too many scenes of Cage watching porn tapes.
  The copyright of the article 8 MM in Movie Reviews is owned by Bruce Diamond. Permission to republish 8 MM in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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