Review of Powder Blue (2009) by Sergio E — 02 May 2010

No doubt this movie had potential. The cast offers a handful of well-known actors, several of which are more than capable of good acting (Whitaker in particular is usually superb). Unfortunately, most of the well-known stars in this film only had bit parts. Kristofferson, Swayze and Kudrow each maybe have five lines of dialogue in the entire thing. There were several scenes in the movie, one in particular near the end, which simply had no business being in the film at all. Even worse, NONE of the characters' back stories were developed whatsoever, something which may have actually prevented the story from falling completely flat.

This film will obviously be compared to Crash and The Air I Breathe, as I've seen already in several other reviews. Just because a story is "gritty" and emotionally charged does not make it good or even entertaining. This film was plagued by the same issues as The Air I Breathe: mediocre writing, unnatural dialogue and virtually no character development. Crash was successful because it had character development, the story was poignant and somewhat believable, the film itself was artfully edited and the dialogue was well written and very well acted. As the audience, we need to be able to suspend our disbelief in order to accept a "strangers' lives intersecting" type of plot. I had no problem suspending disbelief in Crash. Not the case with Powder Blue.

Putting comparisons aside, was it the worst film I've ever seen? No. In fact, it was still considerably better than The Air I Breathe. The music and cinematography was actually above average. Liotta's character was disappointingly wooden (no surprise there). Whitaker probably did the best he could. Biel definitely offered a brave performance and appeared to really pour herself into her role, although seemed to lose momentum in the end. Bottom line: don't go into Powder Blue with too high expectations.

Jessica Biel (Home of the Brave, The Illusionist) stars as Rose Johnny, a stripper who has a son in a hospital, and has a torrid romance with Qwerty Doolittle (Eddie Redmayne). The film also features Forest Whitaker (The Air I Breathe) as a suicidal priest named Charlie, and Ray Liota (Battle in Seattle, Even Money) as an ex-con named Jack Doheny obsessed with Rose.

Powder Blue is a lot like The Air I Breathe with Andy Garcia, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, in that the characters all randomly cross paths on Christmas eve.

Some of the more interesting scenes in the film involve Charlie trying to attempt suicide with a transsexual hooker named Lexus (Alejandro Romero). Lexus finally ends up shooting herself instead of Charlie after talking about a failed love affair.

Some of the strip scenes at the club, and private dances where Jack is getting off on Rose are kind of kinky. The final strip scene where Rose goes topless with some candle wax while Qwerty Doolittle watches is somewhat erotic, and also shows that Rose has feelings for Qwerty.

Patrick Swayze also puts on a good performance as a sleazy strip club manager named Velvet Larry. Velvet forces Rose to be at work on Christmas eve so she cannot see her dieing son Billy (Chandler Canterbury).

Jessical Biel, Eddie Redmayne, and Forest Whitaker really give outstanding performances in Powder Blue. The film is well written and directed by Timothy Linh Bui.

Angelenos meet on Christmas Eve through chance, tragedy and divine intervention. Velvet Larry is the sleazy owner of the strip club where Rose Johnny dances. Qwerty Doolittle is a mortician who falls in love with her. Randall is the head of a corporate crime organization who tries to convince a former employee not to seek vengeance on his former co-workers. Charlie is a suicidal ex-priest. Lexus is a transsexual prostitute who shares an unexpected bond with the priest.