Its great to see Grand Rapids and its local talent looking so good on the big screen. There were numerous spatterings of applause and cheers during the premiere of “The Chaos Experiment”, a movie that shot in Grand Rapids for 16 days in September 2008, the first since Michigan’s generous tax incentives were passed.
Too bad the applause and cheers were limited to noticing local landmarks like the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, the Grand Rapids Police Department, the carousel at the Van Andel Museum Center, the Bull’s Head Restaurant, the Grand Rapids Press and local actors (like Doug Alchin and Michael Travis) getting their few minutes of screentime and delivering their handful of lines… because the movie itself hovers around average. Anyone who wasn’t involved or isn’t somehow connected to Grand Rapids, or a fan of Val Kilmer should wait on seeing this movie.
Warning to parents: this movie is rated R for its violence, nudity, and language.
Its sad to say, but this movie had the potential to be so much better, in the end its appeal will be limited to Grand Rapidians, the people involved with or interested in this project, and die hard Kilmer and Armand Assante fans.
Director Philippe Martinez told us on set that this was going to be a Hitchcock-like thiller, but somewhere along the way, it lost its connection to the famed director that set up many of our modern suspense thrillers.
The pacing is off… the violence is more graphic than implied… the movie drifts in and out of being serious… the plot doesn’t have a building climax that gets more and more intense… and I was never on the edge of my seat. I cringed a couple times at the violence, but not from suspense.
This is the second time in less than a year I’ve said this, but this movie felt like a director’s cut… you know, when you’ve seen a movie and loved it, and get to see the slightly longer versions of scenes or different scenes than you saw before. But this is the opposite… here a vasy majority of scenes needed to be tightened up, moving to the next scene and move the story along.
I can appreciate the dark, twisted nature of the movie, and the cinematography was good, with a eerie and ominous mix of music weaved through the film. I like the fact that the first two minutes or so of the movie has no dialogue and that the scenes in the steam bath used a lot of close-ups to convey emotions, while the outside scenes used a lot of wider shots.
The six subjects inside the ’steam bath’, a set constructed at a soundstage in Grand Rapids are: Eric Roberts, Megan Brown, Patrick Muldoon, Cordelia Reynolds, Eve Mauro, and Quinn Duffy.
The movie’s flashes between Kilmer and Assante’s tense interrogation and the subjects in the steam bath tied to establish pacing, but this is one case when more would have been better. If Kilmer would have explained each stage of the ’steam experiment’, then cut to the ’subjects’ going through his theory, it wouldn’t have been so scattered. That change would stengthen his theory that in this enclosed, warming environment, people will begin to de-evolve into basic instincts of survival while others go crazy. Its implied and later referenced, but too late in the film.
Kilmer carries this movie with his portrayal of a crazy, delusional scientist with theories that are radically beyond the believable. His moments without dialogue or limited lines are strong as he conveys lines of screenplay without opening his mouth. When he does, he’s often quick witted and intelligent compared to Assante’s character of the bruting police detective. Assante’s acting is polished and solid, with the audience easily sold that he is a transplanted policeman from New York. He’s got a sense of humor, he’s tough, and a ladies man all in one movie.
Unfortunately the strength of Kilmer and Assante’s scenes are not enough to lift this movie’s rating up.
Michigan actors Doug Alchin and Michael Travis should be happy with their performances in their first big movie. Alchin, from Okemos, Michigan plays Assante’s Lt. Clark at the Grand Rapids Police Department, delivering several convincing lines of dialougue as Assante’s antagonist in a couple scenes. Travis, from Grand Rapids, Michigan plays Sam, a security guard, at a hotel, sharing screen time with both Kilmer and Assante and despite just a few lines, he holds his own with the two pros in the one scene he’s in.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
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May 12th, 2009 at 11:08 pm by Laff at the Movies under Entertainment
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