Particles of Truth (2003)
A tour-de-force from writer/producer/director/actress
Jennifer Elster, "Particles of Truth" is an interesting
film that is often torn asunder by its typical ideas
and its vehement hatred of men.
I saw this film during the 2003
Austin Film Festival, directly after seeing "Prey
for Rock and Roll" and was reminded immediately that
AFF is run mainly by females and the bent of many
of the films are feminist. They should really just
give themselves over to this and quit hyping the festival
as a "script writer's" festival and begin to promote
it as the Estrogen fest it truly is.
"Particles of Truth" is an interesting
film. It concerns Lilli, an embittered artist who
hides behind her anger at the world and her fear of
it. Unfortunately, all of the other prominent characters
in the film are damaged ignoramuses or violent creeps.
Lilli falls in love with a young writer but he's a
germophobic who refuses to leave his car. (His critically
acclaimed novel is called "Notes from an Automobile.")
Her roommate is a ridiculous caricature who hides
behind her religion. The roommate's boyfriend is a
misogynistic creep who invades Lilli's personal space
every time he sees her.
Lilli's family is a shambles. Her
father is dying. She constantly flashes back to her
childhood where her parents were drug addicts. Meanwhile,
the writer's family is no bed of roses either as his
father has lost his job and feels his youth slipping
away. Before the film ends, we will discover that
his mother has breast cancer. Nope. Not one "normal"
person in the bunch, just a bunch of characters with
"problems."
Elster has charm and she looks vaguely
familiar (although I can find no other on screen credit
besides this film). We like her character and want
her to succeed. But when the horrible contrivances
of the script continue to undo her, including a ridiculous
and ham-handed rape scene, we end up hating her. (I'm
still not convinced that most women do not have rape
fantasies. But I am convinced that all female screenwriters
have rape retribution fantasies. And, you know, in
order to fantasize about retribution, you have to
fantasize about rape. After seeing the rape scene
in "Prey for Rock and Roll" and then this film within
two days, I'm about ready to become even more misogynistic
and consider women too fucked up to care about.)
The film takes forever to get going
and Elster vacillates between so many side stories
that we just give up on trying to figure out where
she is going as easily as we give up caring about
the characters. There is a lot of extraneous stuff
here, like the writer's fucked up parents and the
roommate's side story. These could be completely clipped
out and perhaps make the film less oppressive and
easier to forgive. And surely, the rape scene is totally
unnecessary. This is just grandstanding by Elster.
Gale Harold (of "Queer as Folk"),
Elizabeth Van Meter (who was so wonderful in "Passing
Stones"), and veteran actor Larry Pine can't do much
to help this film because each and every one of them
is stuck in a role that is cliched and stereotyped.
We have seen all these characters before in much better
films. At least Harold has some chemistry with Elster.
We want them to be together. But his character has
no surprises. We have no doubt his love for Elster's
Lilli will easily allow him to overcome his germ phobias
and agoraphobia. (It does.)
There are particles of truth in
this film and it often seems capable of being good
and touching us. But just as soon as we become interested
and involved, a particle of untruth, a chunk of contrivance
and a bag full of ham-handedness slam through the
film and ruin it.
Note:
A song by Talk Talk is used to score
the "happy" ending.
Viewed
at AFF 2003.
