Purely Joyful Movie!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Rachel Weisz is the only one for whom I should take my hat off compared with the catastrophic performance of Mol, Weller and Rudd; they have totally spoiled everything with their stiff overacting. I like movies about art, and this one exhibits the darker, subjective and immoral side of art and pretty much justifies it. It also shows how much we, human beings, are obsessed with the outer shape of things and not their essence: beauty, money, recognition... etc. and the more we work on the outside, the more corrupted the inside gets. The movie is a typical case of the artistic embodiment of the human follies, which quite reminds me of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Movies which are intellectually and artistically provocative are not to be missed, and this is certainly one of them.

Until I watched "The Shape of Things" a few hours ago my only exposure to acclaimed modern playwright Neil LaBute were a few clips of Nicholas Cage's apparently horrible performance in LaBute's apparently abysmal remake of the unforgettable British horror classic "The Wicker Man". With my interest in theater, modern theater specifically, growing rapidly with every passing day, it was inevitable that I would sit down and watch a Neil LaBute film, one adapted from one of his own plays for the screen."The Shape of Things" is a further extension of my lucky streak with recent movie picks, as I have either really liked or loved all of my past six film viewings, and this film belongs in the latter group. A comedy so dark I felt guilty for laughing, a film so dramatically compelling and ultimately devastating that I was left literally close to tears by the end of it. It's easy to see how many could really, really hate this movie. It's cruel, misanthropic, bleak, its sense of humor is twisted, and it's really not 'fun' at all.Although I'm sure some will disagree, "The Shape of Things" is one of that rare breed of film I like to call the 'night-ruiner'. LaBute's screenplay, which is probably almost exactly the same as his original play, is a deft, clever, interesting examination of a number of things: friendship, how easily influenced we can be, how we perceive each other, the nature of art, and more, but works ultimately thanks to its emotional impact. A play (or screenplay) of this sort never amounts to anything if the characters aren't compelling and from start to finish these characters most certainly are. Adam is the lead character, played excellently by Paul Rudd in one of the more demanding roles he's taken on, and along with Gretchen Mol's character Jenny he's really the only decent character in the film. Frustratingly naive, but nice enough. All the performances are good enough for the material, and LaBute's direction is very basic but effective enough. I can definitely see how he could fail when taking on a bigger project not adapted from his own work, but I'll wait and see for myself.Sure, nobody's going to call this a masterpiece of subtlety anytime soon, but lots of great drama is in-your-face, and this is rich enough that when a character stands up and speaks to us for several minutes about some of the things the film is about it doesn't feel dumb or unnecessary, but fairly effective and interesting. There's other stuff the screenplay and the film doesn't shove in our face, and the last half hour probably works because it's so upfront about things. It's a very theatrical presentation, and probably works better in that setting, but the film is still a fast-paced, well-written, and fairly enthralling examination of human behavior and how we look at each other.

Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" (based on his own play) is a brilliant, sharp and devastating study of the thin line between what some people call "art", and cruel manipulation. Rachel Weisz delivers her best performance to date as 'Evelyn', an iconoclastic Art student who seduces the nerdy Adam (a surprising Paul Rudd, showing that he has much more range than his contributions with the Apatow crew might demonstrate). She convinces him to make some major changes in his life, both physical ("You're cute. I don't like your hair", she says as they first meet in the museum where Adam works) and emotional, as she forces him to disown his only friends, played by Gretchen Mol and Fred Weller (whose performances are not in the same league as Weisz's and Rudd's, but they fit their roles).LaBute debuted with another cruel and controversial film, the hit "In the Company of Men" (1997), where Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy play executives who decide to seduce and destroy a deaf woman just for the "fun" of it. "The Shape of Things" is just as unsettling as ITCOM, since it deals with broader types and tough issues, such as body image and the perception and value of art. Weisz's character at first seems just a cocky, but apparently really passionate Art student, but as we observe her mind games, we ask ourselves some provocative questions on the real meaning of Art and its boundaries in our society, the way we perceive it and how we're influenced by it. The soundtrack is fully composed of Elvis Costello's songs (such as "When I Was Cruel No. 2", "Radio Silence" and "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)"), and they're the perfect complement for this dark, poignant, and wickedly entertaining gem. To think that, after this, LaBute went on to make "The Wicker Man" remake... let's hope he makes something worth our attention again, because we know he can do it. A film to be seen and discussed over and over. 10/10.

This is one of the most interesting movies I've ever seen, and I've seen a few over the last 50 years. It is yet another wake up call for Americans, in the spirit of recent documentaries like Fahrenheit 911 and An Inconvenient Truth. This film is an indictment of our prejudices towards the abnormal, especially physical appearance (eg sexism, ageism, racism), and our hypocritical relationship to the truth of our own feelings, particularly in our intimate relationships. Put that together with the corruption, duplicity and violence of our political life highlighted in Fahrenheit 911, and the careless and dangerous disregard of our relationship to the Earth demonstrated in An Inconvenient Truth, and you get a picture of America that is beyond disturbing. Thank you and congratulations to writer/director Neil LaBute and producer/actress Rachel Weisz (her emotional believability and fluidity in this film are chilling). How this film grossed under $1 mil is a mystery to me. Maybe this is not a message we're ready to hear yet. Please see this film.