Bug Review [2]
Posted by James McGee on 05.29.2007
Ashley Judd gets naked and ugly--that Oscar's in the bug, er, I mean bag!
Ashley Judd—Agnes White
Michael Shannon—Peter Evans
Harry Connick, Jr.—Jerry Gross
Lynn Collins—R.C.
Brian F. O’Byrne—Dr. Sweet
Directed by William Friedkin
Written by Tracy Letts (from his play)
Runtime: 102 minutes
Rated R for some strong violence, sexuality, nudity, language and drug use
Very few mainstream films are willing to take chances nowadays. You can’t really blame people—with the amount of money needed to make and market movies, filmmakers expect a profit, and generic formulas generate profits. Deviating from the norm almost guarantees a movie won’t make money, so when someone does have the courage to be different, it’s worth taking notice. This weekend, the third Pirates of the Caribbean opened, guaranteeing millions of dollars in someone’s pocket, and promising to blow any and all competition out of the water (pun intended). So, the fact that William Friedkin (director of The Exorcist) is releasing a film at all this weekend is risky. When it is such a strange, disturbing change of pace like Bug, he’s taking an even bigger chance. Though it’s not perfect, and its minimal emphasis on story may prove unsatisfying to most, Bug is unlike anything else playing today, and is worth some attention.
Agnes isn’t exactly living a fairy-tale life. Her son has been missing for years, she has a dead-end job as a honky-tonk waitress, she’s living in a sleazy motel, and her violent ex-husband was just released from prison. Lonely, scared, and depressed, she enters into an awkward relationship with Peter, a Gulf War veteran who arrives just as an infestation of bugs begins to plague Agnes’s room. The bugs turn out to be more than pests, leading both Peter and Agnes down a winding road of paranoia, self-mutilation, and madness.
Bug is not a traditional, plot-driven movie, which means it would have a hard time finding an audience even if it didn’t have the misfortune of opening the same weekend as Pirates. The narrative is loose at best, so the story isn’t so much engaging as it is mesmerizing. Not a terrible lot happens in this movie, and there isn’t much in the way of a traditional resolution. This one is all about atmosphere, and that’s one thing Bug has in spades. The entire movie takes place in the dilapidated motel room Agnes calls home, except for two scenes (one in a bar, the other in a supermarket). Neither scene really serves a purpose that could not have been fulfilled just as easily by staying inside the one room. This one-setting approach (common in plays, but seldom seen in films) adds to the paranoiac claustrophobia, and so it’s a little disappointing that the filmmakers didn’t have the gumption to go all the way with it. Still, the room just seems to get smaller and more oppressive as the movie goes along, making for a very unnerving effect.
The actors add to the uncomfortable atmosphere, especially Judd and Shannon, who have the opportunity to be complete and total loons. It’s disturbing, horrifying and heartbreaking to watch Peter Evans devolve from a backwards, lonely drifter into the paranoid conspiracy theorist he becomes, and even more alarming to see Agnes go along for the ride. Here is a woman who has nothing left in her life to hold onto, so when Peter offers her something—even madness—she jumps headlong into it without looking back. To paraphrase The Joker, the sanest person is just one bad day from going crazy. Considering the string of bad days Agnes has experienced over the years, all it takes is Peter’s ravings to give her life a purpose. When the cheese completely slips off her cracker at the end, it’s the first time she seems truly happy, which is the saddest capper imaginable to this tragic story. When you add Harry Connick Jr. as super-sleaze-ball Jerry, Lynn Collins as the friend trying desperately to pull Agnes back from the brink, and Brian O’Byrne as the shady doctor from Peter’s past, the result is an incredible ensemble cast. With such a sparse story, this film leans heavily on performance, and such a small cast demands everyone be at the top of their game. There isn’t a single weak link to be found here, as everyone more than pulls their weight. The acting is really what makes this film worth watching, although the non-traditional story almost guarantees that few people will.
The 411: Bug is an experience more so than a movie. William Friedkin and writer Tracy Letts take their audience on a horrific mind-trip, augmented by the paranoid, psychotic performance of Judd and company. The story may not give you much to sink your teeth into, or leave you with a satisfying resolution, but the atmosphere and subject matter will have your skin crawling long after you leave the theater.
