Review of Deathtrap (1982) by K J E — 05 Jan 2008

I have a great appreciation for stage plays. Having participated in some dramatic course every year since junior high, I've become quite familiar with the conventions of the form, from the necessity of blocking and motivated action to the often-stilted, exposition-heavy dialogue that has to fill in the blanks of the story (something harder to do on stage than in film, where we can flashback or change location at a moment's notice).

What strikes me as funny about this movie, though, is that, even though we do a bit of jump-cutting and the locations are more plentiful than they could be on stage, throughout the picture it feels as if we are watching a stage play.

The dialogue is sharp, almost too much so (but then, the lead characters ARE playwrights), and the cuts are long and widely spaced, rarely moving in close (in particular, a scene in the opening is shot practically from an audience's point-of-view, and doesn't cut until the scene change).

What's funny is that Deathtrap has been written to have the same self-reflexive nature as, say, Wes Craven's New Nightmare or the Scream trilogy, so the characters start pointing out how perfect the story's events, characters, and setting would fit into the mold of a stage thriller, and how the two characters are essentially plotting the whole story as they go along.

Michael Caine is great fun as the elder playwright whose four most recent plays have flopped horribly, and who, after learning of an amateur's brilliant first work, is willing to do anything for a hit.

.. no matter how cold-blooded. He gets to be so deviously clever and has so much fun reveling in his own manipulations that you can't help but like the character, despite the somewhat morally bankrupt nature of his actions.

By contrast, the filmmakers really made a great call in the casting of Christopher Reeve as the young novice writer, using his typecast "Superman" image to lull you into instantly liking and believing you know his character, when, in fact, he goes through a number of sudden and jarring transitions that Reeve handles excellently, holding his own opposite Caine almost effortlessly (one wishes after watching that he had received more opportunities to show his true versatility as an actor).

Dyan Cannon (as Caine's wife and supportive sugar-momma) really pushed all the wrong buttons with me- probably because of her character's satirical habit of screaming at everything that catches her off-guard- but she mostly functions as a straight-man (or straight-woman) foil for Caine, and in this she does well.

More entertaining, however, is the intervention of Irene Worth as a psychic (of all things) who makes disturbingly accurate predictions about the play's events through her thick German accent- she's a fun character that simultaneously adds and lightens up the tension in the film.

Unfortunately, to tell you almost anything about the plot would ruin the movie irreparably for anyone who hadn't seen it, as the story winds around so quickly and in such unexpected directions that to let you know any of what happens ahead of time would spoil the intent of the earlier scenes of the film (think "Keyser Soze" or "I see dead people", except throughout almost the whole movie).

But what's best about the plot turns are that the foreshadowing is so obvious AFTER they've happened that the film demands either a second viewing or some focused contemplation to fully appreciate it once it's over, something that's always a plus for me (I like movies that make you think, even if it's only about the construction of the movie).

The film is incredibly witty, and it has a bit of fun toying with audience expectations, pointing out the conventions of the thrillers that sired it while nonetheless ratcheting up the suspense using those same conventions.

All in all, Deathtrap is just a great exercise in twist-filled storytelling, a tale that isn't a mystery but keeps you guessing until the ironic, yet appropriate, end- it's the kind of story that's as much of a blast to play out as it is to watch, and a play that I would love to be a part of someday.