Peter Bogdanovich returns after over a decade away from the
screen with a film that pays tribute to the bedroom farces of Ernst Lubitsch in
the shape of the nostalgic romantic comedy, She’s
Funny That Way. The use of close up focus on emotional expression and the
emphasis on the individual character’s burning desires gives a conceptual
insight in to Bogdanovich’s style. Several younger filmmakers, including Wes
Anderson and Noah Baumbach, both obvious admirers of Bogdanovich have teamed up
here to produce this long awaited picture. It is their prestige mixed with
Bogdanovich’s reputation, and the esteem he has gleaned over the years of
working in the industry that no doubt helped haul together an awe-inspiring
cast including Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Imogen Poots and a large amount
of estimable cameos, including Michael Shannon and Joanna Lumley.
The films intricate web of romantic complications follows
sex tourist theatre director Arnold Albertson (Owen Wilson) whose devotion to
hookers and habit of giving them $30,000 to help move their lives into the
direction of their dreams leads to complications, especially when one of the
girls, Izzy (Imogen Poots), shows up to audition for his latest stage project.
This is because his latest project just so happens to be staring his own wife
Delta (Kathryn Hahn) and her some times lover, lothario Seth (Rhys Ifans),
along with the supporting role of a prostitute. There is a stupendous tangle of
twists, concerning another of Izzy’s clients, a judge (Austin Pendleton), who
happens to sees the same therapist as her, the despotic Jane (Jennifer
Aniston), whose scripter boyfriend (Will Forte) has in fact written the very
play that Izzy is trying out for.
Imogen Poots, who plays Izzy, the hooker-turned-Broadway
sensation speaks with the thickest of Brooklyn accents that can be slightly
grating on the ears at times. Yet however annoying the accent may be, Poots is
startlingly funny throughout as she meanders through all the hysteria, using
her charming simper like a knock out punch. Whilst curiously brash at first,
Jennifer Aniston’s therapist Jane gets funnier over the course of the movie as
she blissfully nips away at anyone who stands in her way, including both her
patients and her boyfriend. Wilson, who has a real knack for plagiarising some
of the most enamouring lines imaginable, underplays nicely throughout, as the
frantic and mischievous plot spin out of his control.
The film really seems to be a labour of love for all
involved and has a light-hearted Woody Allen feel to it. It is an
ensemble piece set in a big time city, the
kind of movie that Woody Allen has been making annually for years. The
tale of “fantasy” to which the film earnestly desires is rather optimistic, yet
there are some extremely funny moments. The most stand out involving a cab
driver’s brilliant protest against having to sit through a squabbling couple.
Peter Bogdanovich appreciates that in comedy apprehension can be on all
accounts as amusing as surprise. Towards the end of the film, an ingenious
hotel-room-swapping skit is made all the more fitting because of Albert’s
complete perplexity over the rules of screwball comedy. He looks on baffled as
his wife rings him from the hotel lobby and then ten seconds later is outside
of the hotel room.
One must wonder at a world in which one of the most
successful theatre directors could repeatedly depart with large amounts of
money with such looseness. Yet this does tie in with the idea of fantasy as
Bogdanovich attempts to blend the capers of his 1981 mixed story lined romantic
comedy They All Laughed with the
behind the curtains antics of Noises Off.
She’s Funny That Way
seems to be slightly stuck in the past, with its old fashioned clichés about the
aspiring call girl with the heart of gold and the hopeless romantic.
However, it is a delightfully entertaining hour and a half long revolving door
of foolish shenanigans. Bogdanovich has been successful in his attempt to make
what should be a strong, sober, realistic film about chasing dreams and
becoming self-made into a comedy with the lightness that isn’t exactly present
in most comedies today.
