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Written
by Phil
M. Van
Cast::
Paul
Hipp, Boyd Kestner, Radha Mitchell, Bitty Schram
Premise:
When Robert takes his controlling wife Hallie away for
holiday in hopes of conceiving a child, he leaves his
other children in the hands of a young couple, Zack
and Sophie, who are new to LA. Upon their return home,
Hallie decides to move out and soon Sophie joins her.
Initially Robert and Zack revel in their newfound bachelorhood,
until Robert learns firsthand of Zack's insidiously
domineering and manipulative evil side.
Overall
Rating:
 (out
of 4)
Not Rated
Opening with a dinner party comprised of mid-thirty
something yuppies talking about nothing, yet completely
engaged, "Cleopatra's Second Husband," written
and directed by Jonathan Reiss, immediately grounds
itself in pop culture's current championed form of situational
comedy: satirizing the urbane ugliness and suave stupidity
of middle class America, endlessly enthralled with shallow
ends. However, although beginning with the wit and humor
of a comedy, the film gradually diverges into a deafly
disturbing and powerful rumination about the contradictions
inherent in our relationships and the vast degrees to
which we restrict each other.
Robert
(Paul Hipp) is a man who has fallen into the throws
of constant apathy. A first glance at the dinner party
and his chattering wife, Haille, is enough to justify
his apparent listlessness and disillusionment. Haille
(Bitty Schram) is obsessive about becoming pregnant
before she turns forty, and pushes Robert to help her
conceive at the expense of any real intimacy during
sex. During their initial love scene, as Robert begins
kissing her, she spouts "Just do it, common,"
pushing his face away. Schram's portrayal of Haille
is stilted at times, but is on the whole a believable
mix of nerve racking nagging and veiled frailty.
Haille
and Robert go on vacation and leave the house to two
strangers, "friends of friends," named Zac
(Boyd Kestner), a swinger type with an aggressive edge,
and his girlfriend, Sophie (Radha Mitchell). The housesitters'
stay extends indeterminately when, upon Robert and Haille's
return, Zac and Sophie weasel their way into sticking
around until they can "find a place," against
Robert's passive objections.
When
Robert sleeps with Sophie and Haille finds out, she
leaves him, putting Robert at the full disposal of Zac
and Sophie as they make outrageous demands (like taking
his bed and letting him sleep in the guest bedroom)
and he passively grants them. Kestner's performance
reaches an utterly creepy level when Robert apologizes
for sleeping with Sophie and Zac feigns anger, then
breaks into nutty laughter. Over the course of the film
this performance becomes one of full-fledged sadism,
and Kestner's execution is rich and startling.
In
a dog-like display of domination Zac interrupts Sophie
and Robert in bed, frightening her out of the living
situation. With only the two men left, Robert falls
into a completely submissive position, cooking and cleaning
and dwelling in his passivity until he gains the conviction
to begin taking back his life. The deftly disturbing
interplay between the characters that follows will leave
you thoroughly chilled.
Hipp's
performance is truly enigmatic. He carries a gravity
in his voice and layers of latent emotion in his eyes
that tell us that Robert's passivity is one resulting
from many complex feelings struggling to emerge, but
none successfully surfacing. With his eyes and tone
he states more than his infrequent dialogue ever could.
In the scene directly after Haille walks out on him,
Robert states to Zac with finality, "You guys can
stay, I'd just be lonely. I guess that's why we stayed
together so long." Hipp solidifies this complex
film by making it apparent that as much as his character
needs others to avoid loneliness, he is thoroughly oppressed
by them.
In
an early line Zac states, "I read somewhere about
people being allergic to one another." As Robert
and Zac exchange torments they form a twisted sort of
mutual dependency, demonstrating that whether it be
Zac's opportunism and sadism or Robert's passive-aggressive
revolt, if they are to remain together the freewill
of one will always be totally oppressed, to the extent
that he is denied his own humanity. Tracing this backwards,
dependency and oppression seem to cause each other to
some degree in every relationship depicted, illustrating
how thoroughly and deeply this film's composition was
thought out, and how universal Reiss senses this theme
to be. For those who savor movies that ground their
touchstones in elements dealing with the heart of humanity
and that have something truly insightful to say, (and
for those just stuck in really shitty relationships)
"Cleopatra's Second Husband" is a must see.
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