By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Peter Sehr
Starring: Adrien Brody | August Diehl | Charlotte Ayanna | Elizabeth Regen | Jon Seda | Liza Jessie Peterson | Pam Grier
Country: germany, united_states
Year: 2003
Running time: 104
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263671/reference
Laura says: “German cowriter (with Marie Noelle)/director Peter Sehr gets points for trying something different, but his radical choices, incoherent storytelling and truly head-scratching ending add up to an intriguing failure. Star Adrien Brody has always been interesting to watch, while the lesser known Ayanna does as well as the script will allow her with its non- spiritual twist on BREAKING THE WAVES’S Bess McNeill.
“Jack sports a wild mane of black hair, wears a tan snakeskin jacket, fuels his chain smoking with a Mozart-playing lighter and claims to have slept with 200 women. He makes his living with his best buddy Charlie (Jon Seda, UNDISPUTED) masquerading as New York’s finest and shaking down Asian businessman with planted ‘hookers’ in hotel rooms singled out by partner/hotel receptionist Jeff (August Diehl, ANATOMIE 2).
“Jack frequents films at a run down movie house where he has a confrontational first meeting with lovely Columbia student Claire. When he happens to be striding through that school’s campus with Charlie, he runs into her and her friend Debbie (Katherine Moennig, THE SHIPPING NEWS), enthralling one and enraging the other. (Charlie defends himself and his friend from the irate Debbie with a line out of an old B movie – ‘The only way you got out of our neighborhood was in a squad car, ambulance or hearse.’) Jack pursues Claire into the school where the appearance of her preppy boyfriend inspires him to blurt out a time and place for a date. Of course, she shows up and all seems wonderful, including a lengthy lovemaking sequence that begins on a staircase and ends in Jack’s bed.
“From this point on, Jack makes every effort to dump Claire, although he clearly seems to care for her. Director Sehr never gives any indication why this is so except for Claire’s explanation to Debbie that he’s shy, a quality the audience never sees in Jack. Claire begins to act like a stalker and briefly wins Jack back, but when she discovers him in bed with one of his working girls, she goes off the deep end and declares herself dead. A passing stranger asks Claire if she’s looking for a date (the girl couldn’t look less like a streetwalker) and she begins a descent that brings her below Jack’s level.
“While Jack’s actions are often inexplicable, Brody does a fine job balancing tenderness with the impish streak he unveiled while accepting his Pianist Oscar. There is a lovable being beneath the criminal wiseass. Ayanna has tougher obstacles and migrates from cheerful school kid to Emily Watson’s clear-eyed faith to apathetic debauchery. Seda is a good sidekick, helping to soften Jack’s character and Diehl provides an exotically decadent flavor with his bleached punk look and German accent.
“Sehr (and possibly controversial Chinese novelist Wang Shuo, whose book, Fire and Ice, this film is based on) appears to be influenced by Lars von Triers’ female martyrdom themes, but he never builds sufficient motivation for his characters actions. The film makes random shifts, creating an unsettled feeling. We see Jack in a storage unit decked out like an office several times before Sehr lets us know that Jack is writing a novel (perhaps a metaphor for Jack’s boxed up emotions?) but it’s not effectively integrated into the film. Debbie’s character is around to warn Claire away from Jack, but when Claire’s downfall truly begins, Debbie is nowhere in sight. An undercover cop played by Pam Grier keeps popping into and out of the film for no apparent reason other than to lend indie cred – her late interest in Jack’s love life is a misguided attempt to reassert Claire’s sacrifice while Jack pays his penance in the purgatory of Rikers. Editor Christian Nauheimer uses a flashforward-by- seconds editing technique twice to little effect other than artsy confusion. Dialogue is sometimes muffled and difficult to follow.
“Yet, LOVE THE HARD WAY is so damn weird in refusing to go where one expects that it maintains interest – too bad it missed a chance at last minute redemption with a satisfying conclusion. It’s not a successful film, but it is a thought provoking one.” 2 1/2 cats