Friday, 5/16/97 Unrealistic black comedy ‘Commandments’ no movie
of biblical proportions SCREENSCENE Despite star power, flick fails
to teach lesson or have entertaining plot
By Aimee Phan Daily Bruin Staff The idea of a man intent on
breaking all Ten Commandments is an intriguing premise for a movie.
It’s fresh. It’s original. It almost makes a person want to go see
it just for the daring plot. And since it stars familiar actors
like Aidan Quinn and Courtney Cox, how can it go wrong? Well, it
did. Terribly wrong. It’s almost a sin. "Commandments," Gramercy
Pictures’ most current attempt at a dark comedy, is a sad one at
that. When compared to the style of the black comedy "Fargo,"
"Commandments" falls flat on its tablet. The difference between
what makes "Fargo" good and "Commandments" bad, lies in the fact
that at least in "Fargo" Frances McDormand isn’t swallowed by a
whale. The movie follows the life of Seth Warner (Quinn, "Legends
of the Fall"), a man who suffers tragedy after tragedy when his
wife dies, his boss fires him and his house is destroyed. When he
is struck by lightning from a rooftop while demanding an
explanation for his bad luck from God, he decides that this is the
last straw. He denounces God and begins to systematically break all
Ten Commandments in defiance. After leaving the hospital, Seth is
taken in by his sister-in-law Rachel (Cox, "Friends") and her
disgusting excuse for a husband, Harry (Anthony LaPaglia, "Murder
One"). During the course of Seth’s mission to sin, he discovers
that Harry is already way ahead of him on the path of immorality,
using his powers as a journalist in unethical ways and having an
affair on his unsuspecting spouse. Taking advantage of his intense
dislike for Harry, Seth plots his crimes against him, resulting in
the destruction of Harry’s marriage and newspaper career. Seth and
Rachel, connected by the grief from the loss of his dead wife and
her dead sister, suddenly realize their love (read: lust) for each
other and have a one-night stand. The next morning, Seth, worried
that Rachel might suffer the same consequences of the other people
in his life because of his chronic bad luck, leaves her for her own
good. With the only remaining Ten Commandment left unbroken being
"Thou Shalt Not Kill," Seth and Harry have an overdramatic,
ridiculous showdown that ultimately changes the paths of both these
sinners’ lives. The ending of the film is so ludicrously
unbelievable that it will probably leave audience members shaking
their heads in confusion, wondering, "What the hell?" Despite
cheesy attempts at biblical symbolism and moral lessons,
"Commandments" falls short of this goal and falls short of being an
even remotely entertaining movie. The plot is unbelievable – a
tornado, for example, comes twisting through Seth’s front door,
devastating his house alone, leaving everything else, even the
houses on either side of his untouched. In what universe? And
Rachel, who had only slept with Seth once, suddenly realizes the
next morning that she’s pregnant. When did she have time to take a
pregnancy test? The acting is no compensation, either. While Quinn,
Cox and LaPaglia are all reasonably good actors in other films, it
is highly unlikely that they will want to put this "movie" on their
filmographies. Quinn, who shines in such supporting roles as
"Michael Collins," chose the wrong film to take leading man status.
His spirited attempt to breathe life into the role of this clearly
amoral character fails; there is only so much an actor can do with
a bad script. In the leading-lady role, Cox comes off as such a
weak, spineless little simpleton that you almost understand why her
husband is cheating on her. It’s not really her fault because she
didn’t have much to work with. Her main function in the story is to
bounce from one male character to the other. Only LaPaglia does a
fairly decent job in the film, portraying a slimy sleazeball so
convincing, audience members will almost want to punch him as much
as Quinn’s character does in the movie. If the film was more
light-hearted, the fairy-tale nature of the events would be more
acceptable. But because it is taken with such a serious attitude by
the leading characters, the film is a joke. It’s not a black comedy
that, through darkly humorous situations and characters, ironically
teaches a lesson on life. It misses the mark, being a dark comedy
that tries to be funny, sentimental and romantic, but ends up being
none of the above. Its attempt to juggle such large issues as good,
evil, religion and love in a whimsical, carefree manner ultimately
causes the film to drop all of them in a messy heap. He is
swallowed by a whale for God’s sake. Oops. Broke a commandment.
Grade: A for the idea and F for the execution. Gramercy Pictures
Courtney Cox (l.) and Aidan Quinn star in "Commandments."