Review of When Will I Be Loved (2004) by Chads. — 23 Apr 2007

Neve Campbell goes full-frontal in the shower(sort of) without a body double, as was not the case with Angie Dickinson's nude scene in Brian DePalma's "Dressed to Kill"; the 1980 slasher film that "When Will I Be Loved" superficially resembles in the opening minutes.

This latest piece of guerilla filmmaking by the director of "Black and White" seems to be an unofficial sequel(somebody forgot to tell Mike Tyson to go home) when Vera(Campbell) stalks the sidewalks of New York(for men) with Professor Rabinowitz(James Toback) at the outset.

The editor's use of a staccato cross-cutting style between Vera and Ford(Fred Weller) is meant to illustrate how the couple are ill-matched for each other(as suggested by the disparate soundtracks; hip-hop for him, classical for her).

There is no common ground that would indicate these two urbanites know each other, which is the point, but it makes "When Will I Be Loved" something of a chore to sit through. When Ford pimps his girlfriend to an Italian count(Dominic Chianese), he arrives at Vera's gaudy bachleorette pad to make an offer the post-feminist can't refuse.

All the scenes that take place in Vera's loft is accompanied by classical music, which performs the function of softening the carnal(sometimes sordid) activities that Vera engages in with Lupo(the count) and her other suitors.

This air of elegance that permeates the loft feminizes Vera to an extent that we rule her out as a femme fatale, even when the film suggests that she, by all appearances, is one. The end of "When Will I Be Loved" seems incoherent; in the closing moments, her expression in the shower mirror suggests a murderous intent, but the film never supplies us with a visual clue to back up the malevolence behind her mischevious smirk.

We need an insert.