Stars:
Sarah Polley, Robert John Burke, Helen Mirren, Baltasar Kormakur, Paul Lazar,
Annika Peterson, and Julie Christie
Writer:
Hal Hartley
Director:
Hal Hartley
Feature
length: 1 hour and 43 minutes
Extras:
Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 16
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2001/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: United Artists
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
I
remember attending the 13th Independent Feature Film Market at the
Angelica Film Center in New York City and sitting in on a screening of what was
supposed to be three short films by Hal Hartley, but ended up only being two for
reasons I cannot recall. I was impressed by the mix of wit and style Hartley had
in his films and have been a fan ever since. “No Such Thing” is an
interesting film that works on some levels, but is a little too satirical for
it’s own good in other areas.
Sarah
Polley plays “Beatrice,” a young journalist who gets her big break in more
ways than one when she gets sent to Iceland to investigate the disappearance of
a network camera crew that had been sent to track down the legend of some
indestructible monster. Her fiancé was among those who disappeared so after
overcoming delays due to urban terrorists, religious fanatics, uranium
smugglers, and the occasional junkie, Beatrice manages to catch her rerouted
flight, which crashes into the ocean and leaves her as the sole survivor.
After
undergoing months of intensive and painful operations and therapy, Beatrice
finally arrives at the remote village where the monster has been known to
terrorize. Being the kind townsfolk one might expect in a place so far out that
there are no roads to reach it, Beatrice is drugged and left on the doorstep of
the monster’s layer with two bottle of booze to appease the beast. Waking up,
Beatrice is surprised to learn that she has been duped by the townsfolk and left
as an offering for the monster (Robert John Burke) that promptly asks her
“What the fuck do you want?”
She
asks for her clothes and what happened to her fiancé and the camera crew that
accompanied him from the network only to learn that the monster killed them all
because they woke him up. The monster will kill her as well as the rest of
humanity unless someone can fulfill his one wish, to die. The monster is
practically immortal and is older than any other living creature on the Earth as
well as deeply depressed and an alcoholic that can exhale great bursts of fire
from his mouth at will like a dragon. There is a scientist who might have
discovered a way to kill him, but he has been taken back to America for
“forced” military research. Beatrice makes the monster a deal. If he
promises not to kill any more humans for the duration of their time together and
accompany her to New York, she will help him find the scientist who may be able
to end his existence. After all New York can kill anybody, right?
“No
Such Thing” works well as a sardonic twist on the Beauty and the Beast motif
without ever succumbing to fairytale clichés and the film is smart enough to
avoid the usual “fish out of water” gags associated with other films that
feature New York or some other big American city as a backdrop. The performance
by Robert John Burke is sensational with a degree of dignity, comedy, and pain
every good screen monster should have and the makeup is top notch. Both Helen
Mirren and Julie Christie turn in good supporting performances and I must say
that both are two older woman who have not lost their sex appeal and dare I say
they can put some contemporary starlets to shame. Sarah Polley has just the
right amount of awkwardness if not downright strangeness to her character that
makes her interesting to watch, even though she walks around with pigtails for
almost half the scenes she appears in. the film also poses some interesting
metaphysical questions.
However,
the media is a subject that has become all too common a target to criticize
leaving Hartley with the unenviable task of satirizing that aspect in a way
audiences have never seen before. He only partially succeeds in this area and
might have been better off just sticking to the exaggerated world portrayed in
the film’s first act than going for a more direct approach with explanations
as seen in the third act. Without giving away anything, the film’s ending is
abrupt if not flat, but as a whole “No Such Thing” is a better than average
mix of satire and fantasy that is definitely worth checking out.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Home Entertainment’s DVD edition of “No Such Thing” presents the film in a
letterboxed (1.66:1) aspect ratio. The image quality is excellent, but I would
have preferred the anamorphic enhancement for this DVD. A well-mixed English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is provided along with optional English
Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles. A
(1.66:1) theatrical trailer is the only extra feature included on this disc. I
think this film should have been made as a “Special Edition” MGM DVD
release. American Zoetrope mastered the disc. The menus are standard interactive
still frames that are easy to navigate.
“No
Such Thing” will debut on DVD on Tuesday, July 9, 2002 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.