At some point in my adult life I had to come to the sad
conclusion, completing my disillusionment, that Kevin Smith is a much better
writer than director. In fact, he doesn’t make very good movies. Clerks succeeds because it was all of a
time and place: a scrappy little independent low budget film that had some very
funny bits. His follow up was not well-received by anyone, but in 1997 Chasing Amy was something of a
revelation. At the time I thought it was just about the perfect romantic
comedy. Watching it again now for the first time in many years I still think
it’s got some wonderful dialogue, keen relationship insights and still sets the
bar for the genre, but I recognize how shoddy the filmmaking is.
I’m not the biggest fan of Ben Affleck as an actor and I
do think he is the weak link in an otherwise very well cast film, but he is
mostly convincing as the sick and in love Holden McNeil, creator of a popular
comic book known as “Bluntman and Chronic,” a superhero duo based on Smith’s
recurring characters Jay and Silent Bob. Holden’s business partner and
childhood best friend is Banky Edwards, played by Jason Lee, who made a huge
impression on me when I first saw this film 15 years ago. He has continued to
turn out strong performances for both indies and Hollywood films alike.
Their friendship and partnership is threatened by the
arrival on the scene of the adorable and lovable Alyssa Jones. Her
perfectly-coiffed blonde hair, stylish manner of dress, and snappy remarks draw
Holden in for a love-at-first-sight moment, which is related to, but not
exactly the same as a Meet Cute. Her own comic book is a romance series called
“Idiosyncratic Routine,” and serves to round out her character as a mushy
romantic idealist. Holden, in spite of his friendship with the brash and crude
Banky, is also a romantic at heart. These two are a destined pair…until he
finds out she’s gay.
Smith has been faulted for writing a romantic story in
which a gay character chooses to get involved in a relationship with a member
of the opposite sex. I can understand why this looks offensive on the surface
and in most cases I’d probably join the chorus of naysayers. After all, to
present a gay character who ends up in a hetero relationship is to suggest that
being gay is a choice, one which the safe and cuddly lesbian is willing to undo
when the right man turns up. Smith overcomes that with a satisfyingly
convincing explanation for why Alyssa gets together with Holden. It’s sweet and
mushy, but rather plausible if you believe, like I do, that sexuality is not
necessarily a one or the other dichotomy, but a spectrum with lots of gray areas.
In a scene that reveals Holden to be rather ignorant, or at least very
traditional, in his thinking about virginity and sexuality, Alyssa explains
that girls feel right for her, just as they do for Holden. But Smith’s writing
and Adams’ performance excel at convincing the audience that this particular
man (after a well-developed friendship) can feel right too.
The friction comes from Banky, whose jealousy of Alyssa
leads him to find some dirt in her past that gets Holden thinking, well, like a
young man. When he learns that she has a sexual past he’s not ready to deal
with he becomes, as his friend Hooper (Dwight Ewell) explains to him, the
epitome of men who like to think of themselves as Marco Polo being the first to
explore new lands, so to speak. It feels like Smith really latches onto
something innate within the male psyche. He’s ventured here before with the
whole “37” thing in Clerks, but it’s
the focal point of conflict in Chasing
Amy and it’s something that I believe very easily and very unnecessarily
gets in the way of some relationship. That Alyssa is not completely honest
about her past, or allows Holden to go on believing something that isn’t true,
is entirely believable given how crazy she is about him. She delivers a
devastating speech to him summing up why her past belongs to her and is no one
else’s business while at the same time expressing her feelings for him and
trying to make him feel like he is both right and wrong. The writing of this
speech is among the best in movies when it comes to the basic conflicts that
many new couples find themselves in and Adams’ delivery, with her high-pitched
raspy voice, is perfect.
As well written as the film is, it has major setbacks in
technical areas. Chasing Amy was
still a very low budget movie, made for a reported $250K. But the lighting of
many scenes is off and feels unnatural. I recall how well Robert Rodriguez lit El Mariachi using only two work lamps
and a budget of $8,000. Smith and his producer Scott Mosier are not entirely up
the task of properly editing a film. It’s a sloppy job and another job for
which they might have gotten better results hiring Rodriguez.
Where the film falters most is in its conclusion. Smith
wants to believe that Holden’s decision on how to handle his problems with both
Alyssa and Banky is true to character, but it’s so forehead-slappingly idiotic
I’ve always had a hard time buying into it. In 1997 I just thought it was a
stupid idea of Holden’s. Now I think it’s a stupid idea of Smith’s. Still,
nothing can take away from the crispness of the dialogue and the fact that
Smith gets to the heart of what makes some relationships tick in a way that
most romantic comedies would never bother with. Most people want the simple and
cute problems, a breezy romance with a conflict that begs an easy resolution at
the end of which everyone walks away satisfied. Others prefer something a
little more honest. And that, if nothing else, is what Smith delivers.
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