If you take all the worst pretensions and contrivances of Paul Haggis’ ‘Crash’ and Inarritu’s ‘Babel’ (or ’21 Grams’) and throw them in a blender with a noticeable lack of production and tech credits, what you’ll be pouring out is ‘Powder Blue.’ The film is a straight-to-DVD/BD production that made me feel sorry for the cast but not necessarily the characters.
Director/Co-writer Timothy Linh Bui’s previous outing ‘Green Dragon’, starring both Patrick Swayze and Forest Whitaker who occupy roles in ‘Powder Blue’, was better than this, but still suffers from an overwrought tone so it’s odd that Bui decided to shift into overdrive on the melodrama when criticism of his last pic would of logically suggested a lower gear.
He nevertheless assembled an impressive, if decidedly third-tier, name cast no doubt hoping for their own critical and commercial whirlwind a la ‘Crash’. That Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Patrick Swayze and Eddie Redmayne are all actually quite good makes this a particular shame as you can tell they really wanted to elevate the script but the tin-eared dialogue and consistently ridiculous plot turns just sink it.
Taking place over four days leading up to Christmas Eve (to really hammer home the woe –is-me, natch); we meet four characters whose lives will invariably intersect. Jack Doheny (Ray Liotta) stands naked facing the ocean. A noticeably distraught, limping Charlie (Forest Whitaker) points a gun at himself in the mirror of a seedy motel room. Rose Johnny (Biel), after mysteriously placing a call to her son to tell him about a date, returns to the same motel that Charlie is staying and finds her dog gone.
The dog is hit and then rescued by the terminally anti-social Qwerty Doolittle (Eddie Redmayne), a young mortician who has trouble connecting (gee…a mortician named Qwerty has trouble getting dates? Go figure).
Charlie, a former priest, is intent on killing himself, but suicide is out of the question so he stalks through the night offering $50,000 to whoever crosses his path to shoot him in the heart. When a tyranny prostitute turns him down, Charlie runs into Qwerty who needs the money but has trouble justifying it to himself.
That Qwerty and Rose Johnny find each other is no surprise but why is Jack, a smooth criminal type following Rose Johnny around? Oh, and Rose Johnny is a stripper who pours hot wax on herself and whose eyeliner-wearing boss Velvet Larry (Patrick Swayze!) is so sleazy that he refuses to let her off of work on Christmas Eve to let her spend time with her hospital bedridden son.
All these threads culminate with a miraculous Los Angeles snowfall (wait a minute…) to wash away sins and bring with it a fresh start and hopefully a new movie.
So far, the only reason why this film has gained any sort of publicity is that Jessica Biel does indeed go topless for some stripper scenes and I concede it’s nice to see a stripper portrayed by a name actress who y’know…actually strips (I’m looking at you Natalie Portman and Jessica Alba…prudes!). Outside of that juvenile if perfectly reasonable reason, this pic is a slog to get through.
The AVC 1080p encode is fine considering the source but will be underwhelming for anybody expecting any sort of semblance of high-def detail. The film is intentionally shot with disparate films stocks and colors to reflect the various storylines and with a heavy layer of grain covering it all, there’s not much to impress here. That being said, it’s technically fine and true to the film. A DTS-HD lossless track is included and gets the job done.
Special features include an audio commentary with director Timothy Linh Bui and producer Tracee Stanley. It’s a lively track but just goes to show that having intelligent people driving a pic doesn’t necessarily guarantee an intelligent film. A shortish featurette, ‘Shooting Blue: The Making of Powder Blue’, covers the usual interviews and behind-the-scenes as well as some storyboard footage. A still gallery closes things out.
A deathly serious pic that is handled in such a way as to actually cause you to desire death for some of these characters, the cast is quite good almost across the board but the weighty inept script sucks the life out of any emotion that might have been generated by the cast. Yep, Biel shows her boobies so if that’s the only reason you’re interested, then you will probably get your money’s worth (I won’t judge). Otherwise, skip it.
Powder Blue [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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