Monday, August 10, 1998
‘First Love’ a rite of passage for promising director
FILM: Newcomer’s debut movie sends worthwhile, life-affirming
message
By Peter Smith
Daily Bruin Contributor
"First Love, Last Rites" will occupy your imagination and sink
you into the sweltering atmosphere of Bayou country southwest of
New Orleans.
It is the full-length directorial debut of Jesse Peretz, bass
player of The Lemonheads and a Washington D.C. video producer, best
known for the satirical Foo Fighters’ video "Big Me." His new
project is an adaptation of the Ian McEwan short story of the same
name, about a young couple eager to share a life with each other.
Their initial thrill of freedom, innocence and lust is slowly
overtaken with confusion and fear of some impending
disillusionment.
In adapting the story, Peretz and screenwriter David Ryan
relocated it from an industrial seaside city in England to the
outskirts of a poor fishing town on the Louisiana bayou. Amid the
stagnation, poverty and depression, Joey (Giovanni Ribisi) and
Sissel (Natasha Gregson Wagner) have their own private world within
the confines of a simple one-room house. There, they can come out
of their shells and be themselves. But, as Joey’s business ventures
into eel fishing with Sissel’s father fail, the lovers’
relationship begins to fall apart.
The performances are subtle and authentic. Gregson Wagner ("Lost
Highway" and "Two Girls and a Guy") plays Sissel, an enigmatic
character without those inner contradictions and vulnerabilities
that come out of self-doubt. She is a confident woman and, in a
sense, utterly wholesome. Joey loves her so madly, he must run as
fast as he can just to stay in the same place.
Ribisi, ("Suburbia" and "Saving Private Ryan,") convincingly
inhabits all the anxieties and insecurities of the character while
maintaining a perfect innocence. Ribisi is a promising young actor
who delivers a stand-out performance that blends his own off-beat
rhythm with a wry wit.
"First Love, Last Rites" has toured a circuit of independent
film festivals from Toronto to Sundance to Rotterdam International,
where it won a deserved award for challenging the American
narrative structure with its concentration on mood, atmosphere and
sexual mystery.
What makes "First Love, Last Rites" both worthwhile and
life-affirming is the message it imparts: Hold on tight with both
hands to love.
Strand Releasing
Natasha Gregson Wagner stars in "First Love, Last Rites."