Review of Bug (2002) by Miguel A — 17 Jul 2012

Adapted by wonderfully warped playwright Tracy Letts, and based on his own stage play, "Bug" is one of veteran director William Friedkinâ(TM)s best films, and features one of Michael Shannonâ(TM)s best performances and the performance of Ashley Juddâ(TM)s career. The story rarely finds the characters outside of a seedy Oklahoma motel room, and weaves together threads of paranoia, manipulation, fear, love and hate, in the midst of conspiracy theories, government cover-ups and a missing child.

The missing child is Agnesâ(TM) son, Lloyd, who was kidnapped years earlier. The incident has left Agnes (Ashley Judd) a shadow of her former self. She spends her nights working as a waitress, but when work is over, she drinks and does drugs with her friend, R.C. (Lynn Collins), trying to slowly forget her past while living meaningless, day-to-day existence. Her life becomes one of âgetting by,â? and surviving instead of living.

Another reason she lacks any more passion for living is her abusive ex-husband, Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.), who was recently released from prison. Agnes is harassed nightly by silent phone calls, and she is sure they are from him.

One night, R.C. introduces Agnes to a drifter and recently discharged soldier named Peter (Michael Shannon). R.C. sees Agnesâ(TM) sadness and loneliness, and wants to shake up the monotony a little bit. Peter seems like a nice enough guy, and a nice enough guy is just what Agnes needs⦠right?

Agnes and Peter hit it off almost immediately, sharing intimate stories of loneliness and love lost. Following an unfortunate visit from Jerry, Peter and Agnes make passionate love â" which Friedkin ominously intercuts with shots of insects â" and soon after, things start to get complicated.

Peterâ(TM)s mental fragility begins to surface when he claims to have discovered a bug infestation in Agnesâ(TM) motel room. He insists a bedbug bit him, and tries to show Agnes the insect while it is pinched between his forefinger and thumb. She doesnâ(TM)t see it at first, nor does she really see the bug bite he tries to show her on his wrist, but she goes along with his concerns anyway. After all, why would he make up something as trivial as a bug bite?

The power of suggestion and the contagiousness of delusion are introduced earlier in the film, with a piece of motel art hanging in Agnesâ(TM) room. Peter examines it, and claims the seemingly mundane painting contains hidden people and things, and âif you really look at it hard enough, youâ(TM)ll see it.â? Then come the bugs.

Peterâ(TM)s bug worries are only the beginning. Agnes is swept away and finally consumed by his paranoia. He claims that while in the military, the government conducted biological experiments on him, including the forced insertion of tracking bugs into his body. Peter and Agnes gradually begin to cut themselves off from the world outside the motel room, and together, they develop a wacked out, delusional codependency. They manage to rationalize and come to the conclusion that the late-night silent phone calls are a part of government surveillance initiatives, and that the government is responsible for Lloydâ(TM)s disappearance, among other things. Agnes is a lonely, lost, vulnerable woman who wants some kind of meaning or purpose. Peter supplies answers, terrible, frightening answers, but answers just the same.

The events of âBugâ? start out sane and convincing enough, but build exponentially from scene to scene until the staggering final moments where Judd and Shannon set the screen aflame and shatter the stratosphere of what film performances can be. Shannon is always a force of nature in his performances, whether they are more boisterous, as in this film, or more restrained, as in Jeff Nicholsâ(TM) âTake Shelterâ? â" my pick for best film of 2011. As Peter, he tears down convention and expectation and brings a totally authentic and peculiar quality to the character. Shannon is unlike any other actor working today, and his performance in this film was shamefully overlooked.

Juddâ(TM)s performance was also overlooked. In âBug,â? just as Peterâ(TM)s delusions and ravings bring Agnes to the line between sanity and madness just before crossing it, Shannonâ(TM)s intensity in his performances brings to the surface Juddâ(TM)s most intense and memorable on-screen work to date, a fiery, rich and complex performance that highlights just how powerful an actress she can be.

Friedkin, whose film âThe Exorcistâ? I consider to be one of the best horror movies of all time, is in top form here again, bringing a masterful restraint to the material, which is, in the end, not so restrained. Because Friedkin directs a screenplay adapted by Letts from his play, the nuances from the source material are retained and never lost in translation. In fact, the stage constraints of the play work extraordinarily well in establishing and developing the sheer claustrophobic atmosphere the story requires. The motel room, dank and hot, serves as Agnes and Peterâ(TM)s shelter from the outside world where the government conspires and everyone else is in on the scheme. They are afraid to leave, afraid to make contact with others, and eventually afraid to let anyone else inside.

âBugâ? is a slow burn for its first hour, but once the hammer falls â" in one scene involving a pair of pliers and a microscope â" and Brian Tylerâ(TM)s jarring score kicks in, you wonâ(TM)t be able to catch your breath for the remaining 40 minutes, in which we experience madness unfold before our very eyes, as a dark, twisted love story comes to fruition in a way only Letts could dream up.

A truly unforgettable film, âBugâ? challenges audiences in a way most American films donâ(TM)t have the guts to do. Friedkin and Letts make a superb cinematic team, and their second collaboration, âKiller Joe,â? also based on a play by Letts, will be released this year with an NC-17 rating. I look forward to that film because âBugâ? reveals these two guys to be sharp and fearless in their execution, and clearly uninterested in crowd-pleasing. They are storytellers, and with âBug,â? Friedkin and Letts tell a riveting, unflinching and sometimes darkly comic, sometimes surreal tale of infectious paranoia and star-crossed love.