Review of Laurel Canyon (2003) by Arin D — 17 Aug 2009

The second of the two films by Lisa Cholodenko ("High Art", see below). Another shy ingenue is seduced by the social rebel's charisma. Cholodenko continues to explore the irresistible appeal of creative agency. But the boundaries of seduction are pushed here compared to 'High Art' (one of the seducers here is the potential mother in law). The straight-laced boyfriend loses his buttoned-down girlfriend to a female artist/rebel in both films, but the treatment is unsubtly different. In 'Laurel Canyon', Kate Beckinsale's nerdy grad student gets sucked into the vortex of sex and music surrounding a gloriously swinging Frances McDormand (hardly recognizable as that woman from 'Fargo'!), and Christian Bale as the almost cuckolded boyfriend plays it reasonably straight. Cholodenko is an accomplished and technically adept director who gets a lot from her actors, though this one is a bit less intense than 'High Art' was. The film has a bitter-sweet feel to it and the ending with its unexplored potentialities is just right. You are left with a sense of how hard it is to sometimes commit to a vision of idealized future romance, vs. a commitment to the past romance that has now transformed to obligation.

As always the music is great. Most of it is performed on-screen, since such a lot is made of the creative process, and McDormand plays a music (rock) producer.