In I Melt With you – Friends to the end.
Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You truly defines the term friends to the end. Say what you like about friendship. If fortunate, they are sometimes the single thread that help to keep us together. Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) adapted I Melt With You from a screenplay by writer Glenn Porter. The film stars Rob Lowe (The Outsiders), Thomas Jane (Dream Catcher), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), and Christian McKay (Tinker Tailor Solider Spy) as a group of old college friends who attend their annual weekend retreat–only this time, they are forced to take a hard look at their lives, and the decisions they have made.
There may come a time when each of us take a moment out of our busy lives and reflect on the important events in our lives, and perhaps compare our dreams to the incomparable situations that life has led us: Re-evaluating friendships, family, and public and private achievements. No one can truly assess the real results of our deeds laid bare before us and yet, we somehow celebrate our failures and successes to form the basis of, according to Abraham Maslow, “the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization, ‘what a man can be, he must be.’”
If social, psychological, and intimate needs are not met, one simply cannot progress to the next level in the hierarchy of needs. I Melt With You directly serves as an example of how human motivation, need, self-actualization, and self-transcendence resonates throughout the emotional, and tragic events that occur.
“What a man can be, he must be.”
Richard (Jane), Ron (Piven), Jonathan (Lowe), and Tim (McKay), whom all are in their 40′s, meet every year at a lofty beach house to re-live their 1980′s college years filled with drugs–lots of them–alcohol, and their memories. They arrive one by one and enlist themselves in drugs and alcohol. The room was filled with laughter and tales of their sexual conquests, and current lives, however, something was different about this time.
Richard, is a failed novelist and the rowdiest of the quad. He teaches a high-school class of un-inspired young adults, Jonathan, is a divorced parent and drug-addicted physician, Ron is married and father to three daughters–he is also being investigated by the Feds for corruption, and Tim, a hopeless romantic, still grieves over the death of his lover and sister. All are in, one form or another, at a point of self-actualization. Unfortunately, it is what they are forced to come to terms with–when they failed to live up to personal expectations, led them to reconsider a 25th year blood pact.
Watching I Melt With You was an emotionally heavy experience. Director Mark Pellington wants you to feel every moment of these four middle-aged men’s bouts with self-indulgent escapades–in order to reveal the dark side about growing old, festering in guilt, and existential crisis–and wasn’t afraid to remind themselves of the mess they made of their lives.
‘A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life’ – James Allen
The film succeeds in depicting emotional turmoil, and how each of the men failed to satisfy social, psychological, and emotional needs growing up; evidenced by the yearly drug binges, an effort to recapture that specific point in their lives when the world was in their hands–only realizing, too late, their own recklessness, that they can no longer avoid reality. They talk mainly of the past, as they could not successfully address the present—although their current lives truly weren’t that bad. Even when it came to finality, they would still reminisce of the past, and the time wasted.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this movie, the acting performances are solid (Priven, Lowe, Jane and McKay at their emotional best). Once you get past the bombardment of music, sex, drugs, and alcohol–and the ‘out-of-place’ or random addition of a local cop, Laura (Carla Gigino), you can truly appreciate the conscious value I Melt With You offer–that life does not always turn out as planned. There are difficulties, attachments, challenges on individual’s emotional well-being. Especially when existing only in selfish indulgence.
Below I have attached the title sequence of the film. The reason for this is that it emphasizes the specific importance of the entire film, it provides a glimpse into the minds of these men and the inner conflicts they repress. It is an intelligent inclusionary detail by Pellington, for it sets the tone for the rest of the film.
This movie will move you, it will also bring attention to those special moments, the finer and important details about life that goes ignored. It isn’t just about obnoxious music and getting high. It’s all about self reflection, and an attempt at conquering those inner demons.
‘You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only option you have.’
Image and video source from: Magnolia Pictures - all rights reserved.
AIDY
@aidyreviews
Latest posts by AIDY (see all)
- DVD Review: DARK CIRCLES - 05/24/2013
- PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER Coming Exclusively to HBO in June - 05/23/2013
- DVD Review: Pacino, Walken, Arkin in STAND UP GUYS - 05/21/2013
Check Out:
- The Rage in Placid Lake (2003) – Review Placid Lake isn't your usual rebel...he wants to work in...
- Never Let Me Go – Review How would you live with the knowledge that you are...
- ‘Love is Like Life…’ by Poppy de Villeneuve – Review A brief review of "Love is like life but longer,"...
- Mary and Max (2009) – Review Mary and Max (2009) is a tale of friendship between...
I am fascinated with movies about friendships, it shows how connected humans are to one another even without blood relation. I will watch this movie when I can.
It’s a great film. Do enjoy it!
AIDY recently posted..Mandrill – Review
Well well well…
Positive reviews of this movie are hard to find, and I’m glad I found one here. I don’t know why this movie got trashed this way. I don’t find it without flaws, and major ones too, but it’s still way better than what has been told everywhere. Anyway…
I love Mark Pellington. I think he’s the most underrated contemporary director out there. All his movies, despite being very different from each other, share the same qualities : Beautifully and intelligently directed, wonderfully acted, and always with an unpredictable script : You never know exactly where you’re heading until you’re there, and I personally love it.
Having said that, and although I enjoyed I Melt With You and kept thinking of it weeks after watching it, I think it’s the most flawed of all his movies… which really annoyed me as these few flaws prevented the movie from reaching what I would have considered as a timeless gem. And I believe almost all theses flaws are in the script.
I’ll address them without spoiling anything :
The main flaw is that goddam letter. It was ridiculous, and most annoying of all : It was useless. Everything was already there for the story and the characters to evolve and end exactly the same way without it. Which would have been even more powerful too. I believe that removing the letter from the script would have resulted in a simpler and more powerful story.
Second flaw : The Carla Gugino character was also useless. What did she bring ? Some kind of tension as to whether or not the truth would be discovered from outside ? A lame and useless car chase ? An outside character was interesting indeed, but it could have been a neighbour, or even the owner of the house, instead of a local sheriff.
Third flaw, and this time in the way it was directed : Rob Lowe’s last scene felt way too heavy handed, and lacking the subtlety of what Pellington usually does.
Finally, although the onscreen text during the (great) opening sequence is pretty effective, I wonder if it’s not a weakness to rely on text this way. I wonder if all the information given by this text couldn’t have been given another way, not to mention that Pellington has been using this exact same trick before in the MothMan Prophecies music video he also directed :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-LaFHAfQc
Despite what I consider as “flaws”, I Melt With You is still a bold and powerful movie, with wonderful actors and great cinematography.
I still love Mark Pellington and can’t wait for his next movie.
I believe one of the reasons why the movie was trashed is no one “saw” it through your eyes; as I’m looking at the comments on Rotten Tomatoes about the film, it’s obvious to me they didn’t notice what the characters represented–faded dreams from one’s youth and the harsh feelings realization brings for those once stuck in the past. If one is used to being immature, as the reviewers put it, most of your life, could you just snap out of it so quickly? It took them 25 years!
Concerning the letter; before the end where the sheriff was in the home, you can see a few lines of text if you press pause. I believe the reason they didn’t want to show the letter is to prevent the audience from emulating it, as that does occur from time to time.
The sheriff seems to have been included for tension just as you suggested, especially since she is a law enforcement official. It seemed to be in place to create a feeling of “oh my goodness the law is going to catch up to them!”.
Good thing you brought up the music video! I think the purpose of the text is to have a greater impact during intense scenes but it ends up being condescending to the audience.
I must say I do enjoy our exchanges JM! Always good exercise for the mind
Aidy recently posted..Mother’s Day Film Collection – Renee Zellweger
Hey,
Just a few more words, as I watched the movie again last night…
And unfortunately noticed even more annoying details. Maybe I was blinded by the great acting and cinematography the first time, but most of the movie feels heavy handed now, like the anything but subtle use of the music (the lyrics “I’m a coward” blaring during Jeremy Piven’s car and airport scene being a perfect example).
What I enjoyed in Pellington’s previous movies is how he managed to leave his music video baggage aside, and stay very smart and subtle about real story telling, but it looks like he suddenly tossed all that away and indulged in everything a music video director shouldn’t do when switching to movies.
There are still some great scenes in there, and some of the experimental sides of it are really interesting, but the movie as a whole just doesn’t work for me. Like a bad 80′s tune with a great bassline, I can’t hate it and will always be drawn to it somehow, while objectively I know it’s not good…
And it really annoys me. I don’t mind a bad movie by a bad director with bad actors, but there are many talents involved in this… So again, it’s certainly not the “worst movie of the year” like I’ve read here and there, but still, what a waste…
On a side note, I’m surprised by how your review completely ignores how dark and desperate the movie is. At times, your comments about friendship made me feel like reading a review of Stand By Me or The Sandlot…!
Perhaps you just like to indulge in “bad but strangely satisfying” items from time to time yourself
? You could think of the friendship as symbiotic; they held together as a unit because they shared the same self-destructive patterns. A friendship that caused both weekend joy from overindulgence but turmoil by being out of tune with reality, or rather trying to escape from it.
Aidy recently posted..Mother’s Day Film Collection – Renee Zellweger