I, Portrait follows famous painter Carmen (Natalie Heslop), who has just married casting director Julian (Hill), and is looking to get back into painting after taking a break. The thing is, if she paints blindfolded, and focuses on what she's painting, whatever she paints becomes reality. Her husband indulges it, if only to have the blindfolding lead to some sexy lovemaking, but the next day Carmen's old friend Stephanie (Sienna Stass) shows up unexpectedly. Could the painting be connected? After getting the initial pleasantries out of the way, Carmen gets the sense Steph wants to hook up with her husband, which naturally would be upsetting to anyone, but when Steph decides to overstay her welcome, now things seem like they're turning downright sinister. Will Carmen get to the bottom of everything in time?
Overall, I really enjoyed this. It brought back memories of 90s Erotic Thrillers, but in a modern, Australian setting, which made it all more refreshing. I had some qualms about a few things, one of which is the ending, which I'll get to in a later paragraph so I don't spoil it for anyone, but there were some real inspired moments too. My favorite scene came when the three of them went out to eat after Stephanie arrived. No dialog, just music and shots of each of their faces, but in those shots, we could see how Stephanie was making eyes at Julian, how Julian was appreciating the attention, and how Carmen wasn't. It built tension and moved the plot in a really creative and organic way that I always love seeing. One of the qualms actually also highlighted something I liked about the film. As the tension was building to the end, there's a break where Carmen and Julian go to a club and listen to a singer, Leslie Lawrence, who's performing this haunting, but also apt song called "Rain." The problem for me was, it was the whole song, and at this point I want to get to that ending because of how well it's all built up! I felt like when I order food, and the app says it'll arrive at one time, but it's 30 minutes later. You can't leave your audience hungry like that! But the fact that that tension was built so well, and that song fit so well, was another aspect I appreciated, so it's a good problem to have. Speaking of songs, Nate's long-time collaborator Jane Badler sings the opening, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," which had a 90s feel and got me in the 90s Erotic Thriller mindset; and then "Secret Smiles," written by William Katt--yes that William Katt--and performed by "Billy Katt," who I assume is him too, so really cool to have him do one of the songs. If you're wondering why William Katt is tagged here, that's why. For me, even with the qualms, this is 80s minutes of Erotic Thriller fun, and well worth checking out.
This is now five films for Nate on the site, and I initially planned to rank them, but this one kind of throws the idea of ranking them out the window. It's more serious than the other four I've reviewed, but what I think I loved most was how, as serious as it was, it didn't forget to include the fun, which is the best part of the Erotic Thriller. I joke about how when I saw Lady Terror, I didn't get the humor in it and had to watch some of Nate's other films, but I wonder if I'd seen this one before that if I would've gotten it more too, because here he isn't as much tongue-in-cheek, it's more straight ahead, and the fun is the fun you find in a well-made Erotic Thriller, so it would've made a good comparison point. One thing I think I would've liked more out of this one though, is if his character was kept out of things a bit more. I think there's an idea of a love triangle, but really it's more about the tension between Carmen and Stephanie, and Julian worked better for me as another vessel for that tension between them.
Speaking of which, the performances by Natalie Heslop and Sienna Stass really made this for me. None of this works if they both weren't all in, not just on the sexual stuff, but the tense interactions and the physical confrontations too. When Stephanie first shows up at the door, we gotta know that she's bad news, and then get the anticipation of the tension that will come as Natalie starts to pick up on that bad news. There were a few moments where I think that could've even been played better. For example, after the dinner date with Julian, the two go horseback riding, and then Natalie offers to do Stephanie's make-up. I think we needed something more there, whether it's Natalie doing Stephanie's make-up to make her look plainer compared to how she looked when they all went out to eat, or maybe she has insecurities, and she purposefully makes Stephanie look hot so it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy in her mind that Julian will cheat. Right after that scene, Carmen's friend Kelly shows up, and Carmen rudely introduces Stephanie to her as "this is Stephanie, she's from the country," not, "this is Stephanie, she's my old friend from high school." If there could've been some more palpable tension during the make-up scene, like there was at the dinner scene, that rudeness, and then Stephanie's response, would've worked better. Again, that's a minor qualm on what were two great performances.
SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you're reading after this, you've been warned, but I needed to talk about the ending, and I didn't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this yet. I don't know that it would ruin the film for you, and you may disagree that it was even an issue. Leading up to the end, it was great. As I mentioned above, the tension was building, then we get the confrontation, which was everything you want in an Erotic Thriller showdown. But then, as the fight goes to the pool, Julian wakes up from his concussion, and joins the fight, ultimately helping Carmen hold Stephanie's head underwater and drown her. It was too cold blooded an ending, I need the baddie to somehow either die by their own hand, or leave the heroes no choice, and here once they'd sufficiently restrained her, drowning seemed excessive. Now, Nate mentioned a possible future film where he marries the characters from his films into one universe, and if the plan is to say actually Carmen and Julian let Stephanie up and called the cops, and then maybe Phillyda Murphy's Candace Knight breaks her out of the mental hospital she's confined in and the team up to try to take out Jasper, I'll take all this back. Short of that though, it just didn't sit as well with me as the rest of the film.
END SPOILER!!! END SPOILER!!! END SPOILER!!! END SPOILER!!! END SPOILER!!!
Finally, if you've been rockin' with us for any amount of time, you know I'm a bit of a transit geek, so when I saw a Melbourne commuter train in the beginning I was stoked. A quick perusal of the Wikipedia page--which I did during the commercials on Plex--told me that Melbourne's transit underwent a similar period of being diminished in favor of the car as it did in the US, but starting in the late 90s, there's been a resurgence there, supported by the government, that we haven't had here yet. They also farmed out the service to a private company, which we're starting to see here now as well with Brightline service. Anyway, beyond my geekiness, I thought the inclusion of the commuter train was important to the story too. Trains often portend ominous events, and this one appeared at the same time we first saw Stephanie, so it was all kind of Hitchcockian in that way; on the other hand though, the fact that it was a commuter train, something people take to and from work every day, brought home Nate's theme of his stories, how everyday people can find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, and while Julian would never take a commuter train, using it in the background as that metaphor allows Nate to reinforce that theme. It's just more really great stuff that I love seeing in a movie.
And with that, let's wrap this up. Even though IMDb says this is on Tubi, as far as I can tell it's no longer there, so Plex is the best option here in the States, or you can rent it from Prime--which isn't a bad way to support indie creatives either. This is just a fun Erotic Thriller, it's not trying to be anything more than it is, but with the cast and crew fully invested, it fulfills exactly what you want when you fire it up on your streaming device. Can't wait to see what Nate's got for us next!
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6831966
And if you haven't yet, check out my newest book, Nadia and Aidan, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment