GOOD HOUSEKEEPING # stars based on 4 stars: 2.5 Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Universal Focus/Modernica Pictures Directed by: Frank Novak Written by: Frank Novak Cast: Bob Jay Mills, Al Schuermann, Zia, Tacey Adams, Andrew Eichner, Jerry O'Conner, Scotter Stephan Screened at: Preview 9, NYC, 10/16/02
Divorce is about as welcome to an individual as a pre-nup agreement from Bill Gates or Julia Roberts. Society pages of the tabloids are crammed with news about break-ups among the rich and famous, and no film better illustrates the intrigues of upper- class breakups than Danny DeVito's "The War of the Roses" a satire on yuppie materialism. To poke fun at what the bottom of American society go through in the same situation the white- trash take on Splitsville, U.S.A. is like have a shooting gallery target fish in a barrel. In fact the movie, which was featured at a Slamdance festival, was picked up for distribution by Shooting Gallery Films. Since that august company went out of biz, it is now distributed by Universal Focus and Modernica Pictures, Frank Novak's documentary-looking feature does not simply condescend to the rubes as did Joel Coen's "Fargo" but is downright insulting to the lumpens. While the movie is entertaining, I couldn't get the feeling that Novak is catering to an audience that love to see people beneath their social station. What good is satire when it's directed not against the rich and powerful and greedy but against people oppressed by their own lack of education, class, hygiene and talent?
That said, there is much to praise in "Good Housekeeping," whose title is probably the most ironic since Todd Solondz's "Happiness." Watching this 90 minute blunt parody is like attending a Jerry Springer show and, believing that the dialogue is all made up for TV titillation, going behind the scenes to see whether the contestants on the program are like that in real life. They certainly are, or at least Mr. Novak considers his feature to constitute an authentic look at fights among the poor and ignored.
The principal characters, Don (Bob Jay Mills) and his wife Donatella (Petra Westen), live in a ramshackle house somewhere in Wal Mart country, either about to file for divorce or simply deciding what to do to get each other out of their hair. Each has a support group: the chain-smoking, gum-chewing, foul-mouthed factory worker Donatella has an against-type lesbian relationship with an intelligent, liberal accountant at her firm, Marion (Tacey Adams) while Don is surrounded by good old boys like Joe (Al Schuermann), Mike (Jerry O'Conner), Barry (Scooter Stephan) and Don's idiot brother Chuck (Zia) They share a son, Don Jr. (Andrew Eichner), who is used to conveying messages between them and appears untraumatized by his parents' incessant feud. In other words we're talking Dumb and Dumber, while the pert and educated accountant, Marion, must be the dumbest of all for having affection for low-life Donatella and for thinking that she can talk rationally to the assortment of riff-raff.
The sight gags include Don's building a wall of plasterboard to separate one side of the house from another, and complaining to the cops who have come to break up the fights that his wife has more square feet than he does. A particularly pungent visual is that of Marion poking her head through a mouse-hole at the bottom of the plasterboard to ask whether it's possible for the two sides to get together like civilized human beings and suggests that Don and Donatella get together for brunch. As Don's friends joyfully up the ante, first by praising Don's use of a .38 to deal with his wife, then by one pal's giving him a gift of his .45, the limit is reached when Don is presented with a bazooka and when a bazooka is presented in Act One it will get used in Act Three.
The film deserves a "fresh" rating on the tomatometer largely because of the realism conveyed by its talented though not well- known performers, but I can't help feeling that it's simply unfair to spoof people who are already a parody of themselves. Satire should take aim against the powerful.
Rated R. 90 minutes. Copyright 2002 by Harvey Karten at Harveycritic@cs.com
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