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Home » Culture and Criticism

The Crushed Film Festival presents: Passion of Mind

Submitted by on April 13, 2009 – 3:50 PM23 Comments

pom

by Sarah D. Bunting

The Movie: Passion of Mind

The Crush Object: William Fichtner

The Story: When Marie (Demi Moore), a widow and mother of two daughters who lives in an Anthropologie catalo– er, “hillside villa in France” and writes book reviews on her manual typewriter, goes to sleep at night, she doesn’t dream; she enters another life as Marty (also Moore), a high-powered literary agent who lives in an Anthropologie catalo– er, “loft in Brooklyn.” And when Marty goes to sleep at night, she becomes Marie. Which world is real? And when Marty/Marie falls in love in both worlds, which man will she choose: Aaron the accountant (Fichtie) in New York, or writer William Granther (Stellan Skarsgard) in France? Can she choose? Or is nothing what it seems?

On paper, Passion of Mind sounds like a disaster. I’ve warmed to Moore over the years because, although she’s limited, she seems to understand her strengths now, and to have stopped trying to convince anyone, including herself, that she’s A Serious Thespian. But if I were casting a psychodrama that explores — or tries to — the nuances of dreams versus reality and of how much we can ever really know about the people we love, Moore’s is not the first name that would spring to my mind. Or the fortieth.

That said, the movie isn’t a disaster — it is disappointing, but Moore isn’t really the reason. The idea is an interesting one, and ambitious, and initially the script’s approach to the central dilemma is fresh; Marie/Marty has a therapist in each life, and not a lot of time is wasted on moody “I’m going mad MAD I SAY” lead-up. She even quips to her French-life friend Jessie at one point, “That’s the problem with you guys; you all think you’re real.” Ironically, having an actor like Moore who doesn’t (or can’t) give you much keeps the concept from getting saccharine, or feeling too studied.

Unfortunately, once Marie/Marty falls in love in each life, the pace promptly turns to flab for over an hour, with sexy montages that don’t work (despite the best efforts of Fichtie and Skarsgard, both in prime charisma form, the downside of Moore’s opacity means the chemistry is one-way in both cases) and by-numbers “the widow/hard-charging career woman lets her guard down at last” courtship dialogue about danger and “that’s what I do — I leave” and blah blah only in the movies. And while it’s nice to think that two men in two different parallel universes would have this much patience with Marie/Marty’s paranoid tweenophrenia, it plays so slow that the audience may not care enough to suspend their disbelief.

The ending, despite an on-the-nose collage of previously-seen images, bails some water out of the boat, but not enough. PoM is probably intended as a comment on whether women can have it all, or on whether we should invest our dreams with the power of reality…or both, but thanks to the pacing issues, it doesn’t work as either.

The Backstory: I’ve watched plenty of shitty movies thanks to William Fichtner; I’ve even stuck with Prison Break because of the Ficht. I don’t know what it is about that guy but even in The Perfect Storm, when he’s greasy, covered with fish entrails, and buried in hip-waders, I still think he’s en fuego.

I rented this expecting to have to mute it in order to enjoy the pretty, but while it’s mildly embarrassing in that I suspect even the principal actors haven’t ever watched it all the way through, it’s not that bad. Fichtner’s beard, however, is close to a fail.

The Embarrassment Level: The movie itself, as I said, is not horrible…not compared to goddamn Albino Alligator, which I sat through for the same reason (but did you see the sideburns in that movie oh my God so worth it). Fichtner doesn’t look quite good enough to justify it, though, so: 2.

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23 Comments »

  • tulip says:

    LOL!!! Now I can’t stop singing, “it’s log, it’s log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood! It’s log, it’s log, it’s better than bad, it’s GOOD!”
    Damn you Sars tags!

  • Kermit says:

    I, too, have an inexplicable and enduring crush on Fichtie. No matter how he looks or how dreck the part, I am there because he is in it.

  • RJ says:

    Let’s be honest: has Demi Moore ever made a good movie?

    Because I can’t think of one. If I’m wrong, correct me!

  • Kristen says:

    I’m sorry, but Stellan Skarsgard is Teh Hottness. Fitch can just go sit in the corner. Yeah, that’s right, I just put Fitch in a corner. Whatcha gonna do about it, Sars?!? (heh)

    For anyone interested in comparing Teh relative hotttttness of Stellan and Fitch for themselves, “Passion of Mind” is airing on TMC April 17th at 12:50 pm, and April 22 at 8:00 am.

  • Todd says:

    Just the other day, I happened to catch SkarsgÃ¥rd in a supporting role in one of my favorite movies, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (from ’88). I was nervous about seeing it again, because it had been ten years and I was showing it to a friend who loves the book, and people who love that book can be very protective of it. Also, sometimes you see something for the third or fourth time after such a long interval, having talked a lot about how great it is, and then it doesn’t hold up even for you. (Anyway…Movie: Still great. Friend: Loved it. Happy outcomes all around.) But I did not even remember SkarsgÃ¥rd being in TULOB, even though he had become something of a name off of Breaking The Waves and Good Will Hunting the last time I watched the DVD. It was a nice surprise. (For whatever reason, he usually is in movies I hate or forget.)

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Kristen: Don’t be sorry; I agree. And I love me some Fichtie, but in this movie I would actually call it for the Skars. The man is a fox (and so is his son, dang). Their underground-grotto wine-drinking date scene? Oh yeah.

  • Rachel says:

    Wasn’t Fitch on that short-lived show “MDs” with my other movie boyfriend John Hannah? HOW that show didn’t survive… oh, right. Shitty concept, bad writing. Whoops.

    Mmmm… Fitch. I’ll sit through “Contact” for him, and that movie has both Jodie Foster and Shirtless McConaughey ‘acting’ in it.

  • ferretrick says:

    “Let’s be honest: has Demi Moore ever made a good movie?”

    St. Elmo’s Fire, Ghost, A Few Good Men, the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame…

    Oh wait, you meant good in the sense of actual artistic value? Uh…I got nothing.

  • Georgia S says:

    Aw, I kind of have a fondness for Ghost. Not because of Demi Moore at all, though. Mostly I remember the Whoopie Goldberg/Patrick Swayze interactions being pretty funny, and Tony Goldwyn’s in it! (Who, I think it was established in a previous Crushed Film Festival entry, is also the hotness.)

  • RJ says:

    @Ferretrick – I forgot “A Few Good Men.” That’s not a bad movie at all, although I never thought Demi Moore either contributed or subtracted from it… she’s sort of a neutral detail, LOL.

    And “Ghost” – well, I never really liked that movie, but I’d forgotten she was in it!

  • Kristina says:

    Moved this to the top of my queue…my love for Fichtner is of the sort where I forget how hot he is until he’s propositioning people for a pyramid scheme and I’m sitting there disappointed because I was actually hoping for even the slightest hint of an orgy scene. That’s…sick.
    Skarsgard is cool, but if someone’s holding a gun to my head, I’m picking the son. Unless I have to pick him wearing that horrible wig (it is a wig, right?) and juicy couture ensembles they make him wear in True Blood.

  • Carrie says:

    @Sars: I seriously love these movie reviews. Is there any chance you’ll be getting, say, a straight dude or a queer lady to participate? I just need to know that someone else has done something along the lines of sitting through “Bandidas” for the Hayek. Enlist Mr. S.! :)

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Carrie: Daniel of TWoP has threatened to join the fray, and I hope he does so. No queer ladies on deck yet, but it’s certainly a possibility.

  • Jaybird says:

    This sounds an awful lot like a retread of “Julia and Julia” with Kathleen Turner and Sting. Except that (SPOILER AS IF YOU CARE WHICH YOU PROBABLY WON’T BUT STILL)

    Sting gets stabbed to death in that one.

    Both Skarsgaard and Fichtner leave me cold, as does Moore, but for different reasons. I don’t think Moore convincingly portrays a woman in real life.

  • Susan says:

    Sars: I’m totally on board with the Fichtner adoration. I’ve had a crush on him since he played Rod Landry on As The World Turns way back when. He is so charasmatic that I fell in love with him even though Rod Landry raped his cousin and got her pregnant. Of course, once the show realized that they’d hired an actor who was so magnetic AND could act they wrote a whole redemption arc for him. Don’t know what IT is, but Fichtner’s definitely got it. Off to Netflix to add Passion of Mind to my queue.

  • RJ says:

    @Jaybird…. “I don’t think Moore convincingly portrays a woman in real life.”

    So THAT’S what bothers me about Demi Moore!!!

  • Sue says:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you – finally, I know I am not alone in sticking with Prison Break. It’s only for the pretty and the Blue Steel looks; it’s not for the writing, that’s for damn sure.

  • Alyce says:

    I used to work at the school where Bill sent his kid and would see him at occasional drop-off/pick-up times. He is en fuego. You are correct.

  • Carol Elaine says:

    For all of you who think Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd is Teh Hawt, immediately Netflix/buy/steal the original Insomnia (if you haven’t already). He is just yumminess on a platter. Plus it’s a very good (if a tiny bit slow) movie.

    (I’ve seen some really bad movies due to my crushes, so I can never say anything bad about other people. Such as Lawnmower Man II and Dead Fire. Gah.)

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    “Bill”? That’s awesome.

  • Samantha says:

    I LOVE me the Ficht. Anybody mention “Black Hawk Down”? I thought I was the only one!

  • cbetsk says:

    My sick confession is that his Captain Knauer in the crappy remake of “The Longest Yard” had me cheering for the guards to win the game. And made me rewatch the movie.

  • Kristina says:

    Oh you guys. I got it two nights ago and no one wanted to watch it with me so I saw it alone last night, peeking out of my hoodie more than half the time because Demi Moore was SO BAD. I felt so bad for those guys for being in the movie with her. Yes, they were ridiculously attractive (though there must have been a sexier way to turn around in a bathtub than that, right?) but nothing could save this. Wow.

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