Every time the camera is aimed at someone in this film, it transforms them with its honesty in the same way that Spader’s character inspires everyone in the movie to be more honest. There’s a fantastic moment when the camera is turned on Spader and the emotional power invested in the camcorder was palpable, due, mainly, to Spader’s reaction to it (as if he was being violated or, perhaps, his soul stolen). It’s interesting that Gallagher’s character is the only major character that doesn’t have the camera turned on him. Instead, he watches a recording of someone else who’s been videotaped, and, as a result, he fortifies his own ideological position, distances himself from those who have been caught by the camera’s unblinking eye.
The movie goes by the book as far as the marriage and infidelity plotting goes, but it never defies the tone it establishes from the outset in doing so. And there’s a weird, confrontational tone throughout the film, helped along by a nice electronic score by Cliff Martinez. Looking back over my thoughts, I think I can conclude that the film itself feels honestly wrought. It’s almost as if a dumb American comedy about marriage, infidelity, and sex was captured on video the same way the characters in this film are and forced to look deep inside itself and tell us what’s really going on underneath it all.
ed: JH
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