HAPPY HERE AND NOW
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A decidedly unhappy attempt to mix jazz music, science fiction, the Internet, all into an incoherent attempt at a thriller. The plot, never really explained so it makes sense, seems to involve software that disguises people on the Internet and somehow has something to do with a missing girl. This is a good one to skip. Rating: 1 (0 to 10), -2 (-4 to +4)
One of the things I require of a movie is that it make sense. This one didn't. Incoherence is no substitute for an explanation of what we have seen, to matter how artistic the intent. Director Michael Almereyda (NADJA) did not seem to want to tell a story so much as to have a frame for some filmed jazz sequences and to put some enigmatic images on the screen.
Amelia, played by Liane Balaban, is looking for a sister who disappeared. Living in New Orleans with her aunt Lois (Ally Sheedy), Muriel (Shalom Harlow) disappeared leaving no clue except that her beloved PC's memory was wiped clean. Amelia goes looking for Muriel with the help of a cabdriver and part time detective Bill (Clarence Williams III of "The Mod Squad"). Amelia believes her sister's disappearance is connected with a web site with a live host Eddie Mars. Unfortunately what can be seen on the computer of Eddie Mars may have nothing to do with the real person. There is software that allows people to appear on the web in real time with a digitally created face and voice entirely different from the real person. (A similar idea is a throwaway in S1M0NE.) The circle of people involved gets larger to include a fireman, a termite control expert, and a local legend of Rhythm and Blues, Ernie K-Doe.
The movie gets stranger and more dreamlike until it is unclear what is really happening. Writer and director Michael Almereyda seemed more concerned with forcing in his jazz musical interludes than in telling his story.
There are several technical problems with the script. It claims that Blaise Pascal invented calculus. That was Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz. Pascal invented the study of probability. The claim is made that in a little-known past, Nikola Tesla did not die but went on to invent cloning. While that is not impossible, cloning was a long way out of Tesla's area of interest and genius.
But the real problem with the film is that it does not really come together into any real conclusion to the mystery. I fount HAPPY HERE AND NOW not at all happy and rather than now here it was nowhere. I give it a 1 on the 0 to 10 scale and a -2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
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