‘Laurel
Canyon’ offers gifted cast, incomplete plot
By Maritza Diaz
On-line Forty-Niner
Throughout
Los Angeles, various little communities
exist that have their own way of life. “Laurel
Canyon” a film written and directed by Lisa
Cholodenko explores the Hollywood music
scene of the street that runs through the
Hollywood Hills.
The film offers a gifted cast that includes
Frances McDormand (Fargo), Christian Bale
(American Psycho), Kate Beckinsale (Pearl
Harbor) Natasha McElhone (Solaris) and Alessandro
Nivola (Mansfield Park). However the cast
is unable to liven up the scattered and
incomplete story that is supposed to be
a look into the relationship of these five
people.
The movie revolves around the lives of Sam
(Bale) and his fiancé Alex (Beckinsale),
a conservative couple who just graduated
from Harvard medical school. They decide
to move to Los Angeles to finish their studies
and arrange to live in Jane’s (McDormand)
house, Sam’s record producer mother. The
couple expects the house to be empty, but
soon find Jane is producing a record for
a British rock band, whose lead singer,
Ian (Nivola), happens to be her younger
lover.
Beckinsale does a great job in showing Alex’s
attraction to a more exciting life. Her
slow corruption into the world of rock music
is fun to watch. McDormand and Nivola portray
carefree artistic characters that only care
about their music and having fun quite convincingly.
Bale and McElhone’s characters, however
don’t seem fully developed and leads to
not caring about what happens to them.
The movie falls apart when it tries to create
conflict between the characters. There just
isn’t enough background in the lives of
each of the characters to care what they
do. Why does Sam dislike spending time with
his mother? It is obvious they are estranged
due to their like for different lifestyles,
but how did Jane drive her son away? Why
are Jane and Ian together? There are too
many holes in these characters. They are
presented to the audience with a generic
personality that is supposed to define who
they are.
A dramatic fight scene between Bale and
Beckinsale is intended to be intense and
emotional, but it falls flat. It feels like
the actors don’t know how to express the
feelings their characters have. The scene
is too short and wraps up all their problems
pretty quickly. There is no sense of real
closure between the characters. The ending
leaves the audience hanging and left to
assume that everything turns out fine.
These characters go through some serious
issues regarding self-discovery and sexual
exploration, yet the movie doesn’t explore
the aftermath of their actions. “Laurel
Canyon” starts slow, gets interesting in
the middle, and feels incomplete at the
end. The Hollywood ending to this story
could have used a better script.
“Laurel Canyon” is rated R and opens in
New York and Los Angeles on March 7.
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