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Brief Interviews with Hideous MenClaudia PuigBrief Interviews With Hideous Men is pretty much exactly what its provocative title would imply. Based on the 1999 book of short stories by the late David Foster Wallace, the film takes a grim, caustic and darkly humorous look at relationships from a male point of view. The movie adds a narrative structure to Wallace's work that helps shape it into a cinematic vehicle by organizing it around a series of interviews by anthropology doctoral candidate Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson). A collection of men known only by their interview numbers provide revelatory commentary on their human interactions, particularly with women. As she conducts her research, Sara also is keen to understand what went wrong in her own romance with Ryan/Subject #20 (John Krasinski). Adapting the rambling, stream-of-consciousness style of the troubled and gifted Wallace is a daunting prospect. It must have been especially so for first-time director/writer and co-star Krasinski (TV's The Office). It's an undeniably ambitious, if uneven, effort. Some of Krasinski's directorial flourishes are inspired, such as Christopher Meloni's imaginative re-telling (and offbeat re-enacting) about a woman he met as she stood crying at the airport. A Greek chorus (Lou Taylor Pucci and Max Minghella) follows Sara, trying to comprehend women as she seeks to understand men. A few stories go on too long and feel contrived. The dialogue - much of which Krasinski takes directly from Wallace's work - is consistently compelling. The stories recounted by disparate men range from quirky to disturbing to downright twisted, and are often quite funny. The opening scene featuring Subject #14 (Ben Shenkman) recounting how he always yells a patriotic phrase at a key moment in lovemaking is hilarious, catapulting the viewer powerfully into the film. However, the bits and pieces sometimes lack a sense of cohesion, and the acting varies in believability. As natural as Meloni and Shenkman are, some of the other subjects - including Krasinski - are not as convincing. Some seem as if they're reciting monologues in a college drama class. It's hard not to be in awe of Wallace's prose and to try and give it all the dramatic heft it deserves. But the format - a series of men revealing their secret desires, obsessive proclivities or ugly impulses -can be tough to render. At its worst, Brief Interviews feels stilted. At its best, it's riveting. Krasinski clearly has the makings of an assured director, deftly inter-weaving inventive visuals with documentary-style footage. Kudos to him for tackling something this risky his first time out. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is an insightful, sharply written and unsettlingly amusing exploration of the darker elements of masculinity. ?© Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. |
