During an idyllic honeymoon in a traditional (unnamed) European country, Delores (Sarah Goldberg) and Declan (Himesh Patel) immediately run into diplomatic problems. A state security officer, Bkofl (Steven Yeun), holds them in a sterile, office-like interrogation room and tells them they are suspected of smuggling cabbages into the country. During a traumatic war in the country's history, cabbages were the only food available to feed the population; in order to forcibly forget the memory of the conflict, cabbages have been banned on pain of death.
This state-enforced shortage has given smugglers a lucrative but dangerous opportunity to reap riches on the black market, and it is clear from the baggy, bulging trousers Delores wears in the interrogation room that she has decided to play the role of smuggler for her romantic getaway.
Director: Evan Twohy
Writer: Evan Twohy
Stars: Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Steven Yeun
With its boxy format and often focused composition, Bubble & Squeak gives cues to its quirky, mannered comic tone before you realize that each character will articulate their every stupid thought in a breathy, deadpan voice. Wes Anderson is an easy, but incomplete comparison: what makes Anderson’s symmetrical blocking and penchant for assertive but stilted characters so appealing is that his films are rich with humanity. The pristine form is broken by imperfections: naturalistic, spontaneous outbursts, composure affected by real frustration and passion. More than anything, Anderson’s films are moving. To be fair to writer-director Evan Twohy, Bubble & Squeak shouldn’t be judged by the standard of an influential, seasoned filmmaker: the problem with Twohy’s first expression of his own voice in a feature is how flat and misguided his satire on modernity seems.
Twohy’s film has some initial foundational problems, which give rise to new ones throughout the film. Our privileged, modern, English-speaking characters ignorantly commit a serious cultural transgression that puts their lives at risk. The joke is that cabbages are such a random and silly taboo that Declan and Delores’ fugitive plight should be made into an absurdist delight.
But Bubble and Squeak makes the mistake of detailing its world-building with macabre trauma (a historical war with brutal famine and mass suicides), so the deadpan American humor comes off as shallow and tasteless. The cabbage ban is supposed to be deadly serious for the natives, but it’s consistently funny for the audience. Matt Berry, Werner Herzog, playing secret police chief Shazbor, strikes a constant note of playful strangeness as it nears its target. Yet the cheesy way in which this foreign country is characterized as a peculiar “Other” only becomes more irritating.
Twohy seems to harp on about how short-sighted and safe his American protagonists are, by comparison, in a conscious effort to avoid straying into xenophobic territory. Declan is a nervous, risk-averse pragmatist, obsessed with “decision theory” and the latest lifestyle-optimization trend. He has a tedious job with a long title, and while Patel ably portrays the neuroses of a dry, edgy modern man, it’s disappointing that his vivacious, expressive charm isn’t utilized in the film.
Sarah Goldberg comes off better than her co-star because Delores is allowed a wider emotional range and sense of adventure. Already tired of the boredom of modernity, the chasms between her and her fiancé are bluntly explained as their escape progresses (most explicitly with the arrival of a well-known Hollywood comedian in a bear costume). Aside from the fact that the film's commentary on modernity is so forced and vague that it doesn't feel any more current than 1998, every moment that focuses on a relationship we see mostly through irony-laden comedy puts more pressure on Twohy, giving them an impossibly earned catharsis at the end.
Mileage will vary based on the couple's deliberately, but not necessarily inappropriately, resolution, though it must be said that any film relying on an ironic touch should know better than to try to be sincere in its final moments. Effectiveness aside, the conclusion makes it clear that this was just a story about modern Americans in love rather than the country invented for a disturbing comic backdrop.
One moment stands out as a microcosm of Bubble & Squeak's misguided approach: With an hour left to go, a young local helps Declan and Delores escape by articulating a poetic, hopeful desire to break free.
Comments
Post a Comment