Director Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You is an examination of four men in their 40s trying to figure out what comes next for each of them – except it’s not. Thomas Jane (HBO’s Hung), Jeremy Piven (HBO’s Entourage), Rob Lowe (NBC’s Parks and Recreation), and Christian McKay (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) star as Richard, Ron, Jonathan, and Tim, four men arriving on the downhill slope of life. The college friends make it a point to reunite each year for a bacchanalian vacation of sorts in which they crack vulgar jokes, imbibe copious amounts of various substances, and lament over the choices they’ve made. This year’s celebration features a grand buffet of prescription drugs from Jonathan, a doctor who’s slowly losing his son to the boy’s new stepfather. Richard is the womanizing, failed writer-turned-English-teacher; Ron, as we come to learn, fills the role of the disgraced banker who leeches pennies from clients and is about to get his just desserts. Finally, there’s Tim, a man rattled by the death of his boyfriend some five years prior to the film’s events. As the audience is exposed to more and more of the demons these men harbor, we learn that these friends once made a harrowing pact that could govern the rest of their adult lives.
Even with the terribly clichéd professionals on display, each facing down a mid-life crisis, there remained hope for a film which wasted no time in getting the four leading men absolutely shit-faced, joking, and discussing their trials and tribulations over the course of adulthood. But all the style in the film cannot save what is essentially an hour-long music video dedicated to the rock ‘n’ roll teenagers who peaked in the 80s followed by another hour of dreary, existential pouting. There are enough to drugs to make Hunter S. Thompson blush (or if the quantity doesn’t, then the variety will) and the men blow way past the point of recreation into unbridled decadence. From ramming shots and lines with twenty-somethings to lambasting them about naivete and lost youth, Ron and the other grown-ups share no common thread on anything from philosophy to maturity or anything in between. It’s a detriment to the film because the scenes are no longer about recapturing or forgetting youth; instead, they seem to almost demonize it as if they never had a chance. Still, one could make a film about that sense of spiraling out of control into obsolescence and old age.
Unfortunately, even that doesn’t happen. The characters are nearly put through an emotional wringer at the film’s midpoint but they avoid any real confrontation by getting high as kites and numbing themselves into oblivion. A tacked-on plot involving the cops provides no real tension and only serves as a weird, voyeuristic frame through which we see the characters all make their final choices. I Melt With You’s most important and driving decisions are rendered insultingly inconsequential by trite dialogue, c
artoonish antics, and character arcs that were apparently complete before the film even began. The film addresses neither the virtues nor sins of these distressed men and dulls both their emotions and ours by burying them in piles of coke. While the acting is strong and the cinematography is certainly appealing, I Melt With You fails due to flat characters, incoherent or inconsistent discussion on lost youth, and empty – though stylish – displays of drug abuse.
Movie Rating: A flawed experiment in discussing morality, mortality, and maturity with middle-aged frat boys (3/10)
As for the blu-ray, the disc has a clean, crisp transfer to the digital format with nice black levels and a penchant for bringing the lighting to the forefront. The color palette is intentionally muted, but when asked to stand out, the bright colors do so. I Melt With You is mastered in 5.1 Dolby DTS-HD. The dialogue is mostly clear and the music is loud and crisp throughout.
It has a few special features as well as two commentary tracks, poster and set picture galleries, and trailers. HDNet produced a quick Behind-the-Scenes for the film to go along with the crew’s own behind-the-scenes clips. The director, writer, and cinematographer praise the leading actors and discuss the film’s more controversial scenes. Director Mark Pellington added a typed mission statement that describes his vision for the film. Jeremy Piven also produced a “mood piece”, which sets his morose monologue against a montage of the film’s various scenes and locations. There are also seven deleted scenes that include extended introductions to the characters, increased debauchery at the vacation house, and longer conversations. Frankly, the scenes were rightfully cut as they add minimal context or depth to the film.
Blu-ray Rating: (9/10)
I Melt With You will be released on February 28, 2012 from Magnolia Pictures.
Recent Comments