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All the Rage
TIFF [1999]
All the Rage at TIFF Directed by James D. Stern. Produced by Ash R. Shah, James D. Stern, Peter Gilbert, Anne McCarthy, Mary Vernieu.
Starring: Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Andre Braugher, Robert Forster, Gary Sinise, Bokeem Woodbine, Josh Brolin, Anna Paquin, David Schwimmer, Giovanni Ribisi.
(Special Presentations series)
THE PREMISE:
Compared to Robert Altman's The Player in the official TIFF program book, this impressive debut feature from Stomp and The Diary Of Anne Frank producer James D. Stern reminded me a lot more of Two Days In The Valley, and not just because of the presence onscreen of Jeff Daniels. Screenwriter Reddin's somewhat overstated anti-gun message is going to make darned sure "All The Rage" doesn't end up on the NRA's "Must See" list.
THE STORY:
Helen (Joan Allen) awakens in the middle of the night, and ventures downstairs towards the unnerving scream of a gunshot. There, in the middle of the posh living room, her husband Warren (Jeff Daniels) stands over the body of an alleged intruder. It turns out that Warren has shot his business partner, who for some reason decided to enter their home, unannounced, in the middle of the night.
The "burglar" story doesn't go down so well with detectives played by Robert Forster and Bokeem Woodbine. Warren is a slimy guy, smug to the authorities, and oozing paranoia over notions of his wife's unfaithfulness. But his slick lawyer Tim (Andre Braugher) gets him off, and Daniels returns to his perceived world of normalcy in which he is the Master Of His Universe.
Still, Warren's actions have changed Helen's view of their relationship and her place in her husband's world, so she announces her intentions to leave him. Immediately. Warren threatens to hunt her down, but Helen finds shelter and solace in the mysterious hi-tech compound of software tycoon "Mr. Morgan" (Gary Sinise), a VR and gadget-addicted geek who manages to combine the worst qualities of Bill Gates and The Peanuts' "Pig Pen". Helen replaces Morgan's doofus assistant (Josh Brolin) as Personal Assistant whose chief responsibility is to keep any and all information away from his eyes and ears.
Brolin leaves Morgan's employment to follow his true dream of working in the film business. He ends up working in a videostore. There, he becomes infatuated with shoplifting punkette Anabelle Lee (Anna Paquin), whose psychotic brother (Giovanni Ribis), uses his rare lucid hours between drug trips to unleash his rage at the local shooting parlor.
Lawyer Tim becomes infatuated with Anabelle, too, much to the chagrin of his lover (Friends David Schwimmer!), who has recently purchased "his and his" revolvers for protection. Foster and Woodbine, still determined to bring Warren down, decide to "bend the law" in the name of Greater Good and track Warren's ever move.
ROBERT L 'S REVIEW
Like Two Days, and the obvious inspiration, Pulp Fiction (lampooned briefly when Daniels returns the tape to Brolin's video store, unimpressed), "All The Rage"s various seemingly scattershot plot threads in the end turn out to be rather intricately connected, with characters serving as leads in one subplot and as supporting characters or even walk-ons in another. Given the non-too-subtle anti-handgun message that permeates the film, it will come as a surprise to no one that the range of comedic and dramatic events build to several climaxes resulting in irresponsible, irrational, and non-too-pretty gun violence.
Canadians like myself find it awfully easy to snicker and shake their collective heads at some Americans' dubious devotion to their country's Second Amendment, and certainly, there was a lot of chuckling and "tsk-tsk"ing heard during "All The Rage"s world premiere screening. To Stern's credit, the film is fast paced and impressively directed for a debut, with the director successfully juggling the various changes in tone and the hard-hitting message in an accomplished, entertaining romp through some pretty dark terrain.
Talk Back
Only the Gary Sinise/"Mr. Morgan" subplot caused me some confusion as a viewer. This element of the story is so stylized, with the walls of Morgan's electronic mausoleum alternately flashing images of his own creation and directly from his psyche, and punctuated with many lengthy rants against technology and The Information Age, that I felt Reddin was cramming too much (well-intentioned) finger-wagging into a single screenplay. I'm not quite sure how "virtual reality" and the onslaught of email ties in with the whole "just say no to guns" groove. Still, Allen and Sinise are in top thespian form here, and their scenes together crackle with chemistry and manic comedy.
Moviegoers lamenting recent lightweight summer fare might welcome a film with such a topical subject, spoken non-too-subtly against a backdrop of superlative ensemble acting and elliptical plotting. But, in a way, I found "All The Rage"'s succession of downbeat denouements a bit of a cop-out: are the filmmakers saying that ALL men--and by men I mean "males", exclusively--are conniving, jealous, morally vacuous Dirty Harry's in training who believe the only way they can solve their personal problems is with a gun? In trying so hard to communicate a singular message, someone at the wheel forgot to consider the other one being sent out. It's a pity such a complex film became so simple-minded and wrong-headed in its final moments.
Talk Back
Reviews: All the Rage
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