By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Toni Kalem
Starring: Guy Pearce | Irma P. Hall | John Hawkes | Lili Taylor
Country: united_states
Year: 2004
Running time: 111
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162662/combined
Bruce says: “**SPOILERS**
“Based on an Anne Tyler novel, A SLIPPING-DOWN LIFE is a weird combination of a traditional love story and a bizarre turn of events for two Southerners who see nothing in their boring lives but a dead end. There unfortunately is no way to write a review without discussing the shocking part of the story because, without it, there is not much story to tell.
“The cinematography of Michael F. Barrow (HEAVY, WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE) is brilliant. Taking his cues from American photography icon William Eggleston, Barrow graphically depicts life in a small, claustrophobic Southern town. Whether he is paying attention to detail or giving us the bigger picture, his camerawork is authoritative and exciting. I would recommend this film simply for the cinematography.
“Lili Taylor (I happen to love her, many don’t) is wonderful as Evie Decker, a young girl who works at Kiddie Acres amusement park wearing a rabbit suit. Her boss screams at her, ‘Take your head off when I’m talking to you’ then yells ‘Your head goes on in five minutes’ as she takes a legitimate break. There’s no winning at Kiddie Acres.
“The local radio station plays songs by a local singer named Casey (Guy Pearce). Evie and a friend go to see him at a local club. While his singing is good and his songs aren’t bad, Casey has the habit of boring his audiences with verbal riffs about his futile views of life. Night after night Evie goes to see him perform. She is mesmerized and obviously in love and claims to see that ‘something underneath the words’ of his songs. One fateful night she is in the ladies room watching a couple of groupies primping in the mirror. When the girls exit, they leave behind a bottle of perfume. Evie sniffs it and accidentally drops the bottle in the sink where it smashes. What does she do? Evie takes the broken glass and carves Casey in her forehead. Backwards, of course, because she happens to be looking in the mirror as she carves the letters into her skin.
“When an innocent girl happens into the ladies’ she screams loud enough to be heard over the band. Evie is promptly spirited away by paramedics. Her picture, with Casey’s arm around her in hospital and captioned ‘Bunny’s Tale: What I Did for Love,’ is in the paper the next day, not as news, but in a promotional story that Casey’s manager has arranged. Casey is turned off by what she did. What does he do? He marries her.
“Marital bliss is not all it should be. One thing is clear, however. Casey is very much in love with Evie. Ultimately the two break away from their slipping-down lives and their future looks hopeful – not dazzling but certainly less bleak than what they leave behind.
“That’s all there is to it – not much of a story but two very real, albeit grim, performances from Taylor and Pearce. The dialogue is at times just plain terrible which is saddening because the film does have a lot going for it. Some of the other characters unfortunately are clichéd. One of these days I’m going to start boycotting tales involving Southern weirdos. I’ve read and seen enough for one lifetime. 4 cats”
Thom responds: “Film reviews can be very peculiar at times for I wouldn’t criticize this film nearly as much as you but I only gave it 3 cats. Plus I’m hopelessly in love with Guy Pearce. I don’t think Edie’s Dad was at all a cliché. & what’s the matter with Southern weirdoes as opposed the Northern or Western or Eastern ones? My memory is telling me that you usually like films about weird people. Surely where they are from has nothing to do with it.”