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Anamorph

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Do you remember Seven, that awesome thriller with Pitt and Freeman and Spacey? Do you remember just how wrong the murder scenes were? Get ready to feel that sensation again with Anamorph, the movie that really, truly could have been.

Dafoe plays Detective Stan Aubray, a burnt-out, alcoholic, OCD forensic psychologist, on the trail of a killer that poses his victims in mind bogglingly complex poses.

The acting and storytelling of this is top notch. The feel thats recreated with alarming clarity is Seven, right down to the energetic, cocky and somewhat arrogant new guy paired with the grizzled, embittered veteran. The partner, however, is quickly dealt off, and the plot begins to nose dive after an hour. Dafoes character begins to ignore police protocol, common sense and eventually any sense of morals by the end of the film. Actions begin to become hollow and drawn out, without any apparent sense or purpose. Side plots, including a reporter with apparent romantic tension and Dafoes partner investigating Dafoes character as a copycat killer are chewed up and choked fatally on, dying after one or two hesitant breaths

The only assumption that I can come up with is that the initial writer either died or walked away halfway through, as a competent director, no matter how fervent, could've have botched a movie so badly and still had so many fantastic scenes. The best I can recommend is to rent this truly tragically still-born gem and watch to just after the third murder, then imagine a climax and ending, as nothing you can come up with could compare to the sheer awfulness of the hackneyed cop-out that was made, which resembles a freight train attempting to toot out the tune to the end of 2001 crashing into a brickwall.

There's another fantastic serial killer at work here, posing his victims in fabulously mutilated displays. This movie follows in the footsteps of TV's CSI series in that it shows how an increasingly jaded audience pressures media-makers to come up with ever more grisly, bizarre crimes and images to hold people's interest. Being a movie rather than a TV episode though, "Anamorph" has the luxury of taking more time to anticipate and dwell on the gore.

Actually, the movie takes altogether too much time. It consists of long pauses - taciturn, stony exchanges - and empty, unexplained affect between scenes. There's an insufficiency of script here. It's all too wildly implausible - and motives and moods hang in the air, as incompletely explained or connected as the killings themselves. And unlike in CSI episodes, almost no scientific detecting takes place here. Willem DaFoe's detective character and his partners don't even seem to follow through and find out who rented an apartment where one victim is hung in a particularly elaborate way. So a viewer can't justify the time spent viewing this film with any forensic insights gained.

However, if you are interested in art history, you might find some value in this film. It jogs to the fore certain controversies ongoing in the art world. For example, the killer uses the principle of the "camera obscura" when he walls a victim up in a hidden room and projects a striking, enlarged image of the suspended victim through a pinpoint hole in the wall. David Hockney, a noted artist himself, wrote a controversial book recently entitled "Secret Knowledge" in which he claims that many Old Masters might have achieved their realistic effects by simply projecting scenes onto their easels with a camera obscura - and then tracing those images. Some scientists have refuted Hockney, saying a camera obscura could not possibly focus images sharply enough to allow a painter to simply trace rather than draw the details of the resulting projections. You can look at the results the killer in this film achieves and consider the question for yourself.

Then there is the movie's title. An anamorphosis is a picture that appears distorted when viewed from one angle, but that can be resolved into one or more discernible images when viewed from different angles. A detail of Hans Holbein's painting "The Ambassadors" is shown to illustrate the principle. A strange smear at the bottom of Holbein's otherwise benign-looking representation can be slanted and foreshortened to reveal - a chilling image of a human skull.

So "Anamorph" does provide some slight exposure to mysteries inherent in a few famous paintings and can serve as a lead-in to some on-going debates over technique in the art world. As a whole though, this movie remains an unresolved, inexplicable distortion of reality from whatever angle you view it.

Oh, Blessed Serial Killers! Where would the world of entertainment be without them? In 1995, David Fincher made "Seven." By no means was "Seven" the first or even the best serial killer film ever made, but it has set the standard for the modern wave of imitators. With its bleak visual style and delicately staged murder tableaus, it reinforced the notion of the serial killer as a artistic genius. I mention "Seven" explicitly because its influence can be felt in every frame of the unfortunate "Anamorph." In fact, the only thing that "Anamorph" really has going for it is an interesting visual perspective--but in no way is that enough to sustain the length of this exercise in tedium.

Hoping to uncover a gem, or at least a solid entertainment, I eagerly sat down to "Anamorph." Willem Dafoe is a dynamic actor, Scott Speedman is just hitting his stride, and Clea Duvall is dependably solid. What could go wrong? Even if the film wasn't a masterpiece, surely it would be a bit of dirty fun. I couldn't have been further from the mark--this film was so glacially paced on top of being so ridiculously plotted that I literally counted the minutes until the end. The killer in "Anamorph" sets up murder scenes so intricate, so precise, so over the top. I just wished he'd have channeled his unequalled brilliance into something more productive than grisly murders. Even in a time crunch, he was reliably on target even with the smallest detail. At one point, with Dafoe hot on his trail, the killer had time to execute a full back tattoo on one of his victims that was so complex and specific that a team of artists couldn't have pulled it off in a studio. Another murder scene was reliant on about 100 pieces of his victim being hung from the air so that if you looked from one spot, a horrible vision was put together. Forget artistic merit (I mean wow!), this dude probably had to study engineering and physics (invisibility and time travel probably wouldn't have hurt either since he'd need days or weeks to complete this intricate puzzle without being discovered).

But points of believability are of little consequence in the long run. I can go with the flow in these sorts of film as long as there is some entertainment value. "Anamorph" commits the deadliest of sins--it is startlingly dull as well. Dafoe is all over the place, Duvall is incredibly unconvincing. The case makes little sense in the real world and the momentum is lacking. Perhaps the director channeled all his energy into create the visual style and fashioned that he was making an art film. If so, and if that's the only thing to admire, I still say "Seven" has already been there--so what's the point? KGHarris 9/10.

Anamorph (Henry Miller, 2007)

The first review I saw after watching this movie started out with the sentence "this movie could have been so much better than it actually was." And I agreed with it, but then I started thinking: how many movies can you not say that about? I've seen thousands over the course of my life, and I can think of--maybe--half a dozen that would qualify. That said, I do totally get where that reviewer was coming from. This is a movie that had almost limitless potential, but got sidetracked by a few bad decisions along the way.

Plot: a serial killer is at work in the big city. Stan Aubray (The Boondock Saints' Willem Dafoe), who retired after the city's last big serial killer case, Uncle Eddie, is called in by his old boss (The Box's James Rebhorn, a fine actor we don't see on the screen nearly enough these days) thanks to some startling similarities to the Uncle Eddie slayings five years earlier. He finds himself teamed with impulsive go-getter Carl Uffner (The Strangers' Scott Speedman), who has a tendency to jump to conclusions, though he is about to get promoted to the same Detective First Class role Aubray has. (That Aubray also jumps to conclusions, and got his promotion by doing so, is understood.) The media and the police believe this new guy is a copycat killer, but the longer Aubray works the case, the more convinced he is that five years ago, they got the wrong man. And now Uncle Eddie is after Stan Aubray...

I've only begun to talk about the amazing cast that populates this film. Peter Stormare plays a shady art expert who helps Aubray with his investigation (as well as helps him acquire cut-rate antique furniture). Clea DuVall (Identity), who never became the household name she should have, is the best friend of Uncle Eddie's final murder victim, who has become friends with Aubray (they both want something more, but are far too damaged to ever act on it), while Debbie Harry (Videodrome) plays his downstairs neighbor, who may also have designs on him.

On the other hand, there's Scott Speedman, and the more I see Scott Speedman, the more I think he's the go-to guy for casting agents when the director says "get me Ryan Reynolds" and Mr. Reynolds is not available. Not that Ryan Reynolds is any great shakes as an actor (the both of them are blown away by the similarly-profiled Joshua Jackson), but he's head and shoulders over Speedman. That was the bad casting decision. Flipping things around, I'm not sure Miller, who also wrote the screenplay, was the right choice for a director here. I haven't seen any of his other stuff, so can't comment as to thematics vis-a-vis his directorial style, but I got the feeling that another director could have done this complex script more justice than Miller did. David Fincher, maybe? And no, I didn't pull that name out of my hat; Anamorph is a movie that wears its love for Se7en firmly on its sleeve. I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, given that Se7en is one of the greatest not-so-buddy-cop movies ever made, but there are bits and pieces where this movie looked as if it had been assembled from cutting-room floor bits of Se7en with added footage. There's a line between homage and rip-off, as we are constantly told. It's not all that fine a line, in most cases. To keep one foot on either side of it requires either amazing dexterity or amazing incompetence. As with Brian DePalma's Blowout, I could never quite tell whether Miller was keeping his balance.

All that said, I think the reception this film got blows goat. It played on one screen, for three weeks, and one of those weekends grossed $239, according to IMDB. This is a far, far better movie than those numbers would indicate. Whether it's overly complex or simply sloppy is subject to debate (I think the former), but the fact that people will debate it on the Internet for months is a solid indicator that whether people liked the film or not, they were still thinking about it. ***

Maybe I'm the wrong audience for this film. I've never seen CSI. I only rented ANAMORPH because there were no horror films at the library that I hadn't already seen.

I can enjoy crime thrillers (GOODFELLAS, CASINO, HARD EIGHT, HEAT, PULP FICTION), but usually I want some gritty realism. Like realistic criminal types. Real life gangsters, or gangstas from the 'hood.

I don't know what CSI is about, but ANAMORPH's serial killer is a fantasy figure. Not at all like real life serial killers. He's more like a Batman type villain, expending so much intellectual and physical effort to kill people, and then to create vast, elaborate artwork displays out of the bodies.

ANAMORPH is about a gritty, realistic detective, tracking a Batman style fantasy super-villain. It just doesn't work.

The plot is dull. Beautifully photographed, but just meandering along. DaFoe's laconic, loner cop isn't sympathetic; more of a cipher. His partner doesn't get him, nor do we.

Clea Duvall is barely in this film. Three short scenes. An early scene of a few minutes. Then about an hour passes before we see her again, for another few minutes. Then a couple of minutes of her at the end.

I liked Duvall in GIRL, INTERRUPTED and THE GRUDGE, but she's not really in this film.

I liked Dafoe in STREETS OF FIRE and THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, but here he's just an empty suit.

The ending was especially unsatisfying. Vague, in a David Lynch sort of way. I don't want to write any spoilers, but ANAMORPH's ending looked like it ripped off MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

Don't get me wrong. MULHOLLAND DRIVE is a five star film. Lynch does vague symbolism really well.

But ANAMORPH is the pits. A gritty cop, fantasy super-villain, and Lynchesque ending just doesn't hold together.

"Anamorph" is a brainiac thriller where the killer's cleverness vies with sheer level of brutality. Willem Dafoe stars as Stan Aubray, a cop who was burned out five years earlier with a grizzly crime and is dragged back into a current copycat killing. Or is it a copycat? Scott Speedman who was Felicity's TV love interest plays Carl Uffner, Stan's new partner. Carl isn't sure whether to trust Stan or suspect him. Clea Duvall from Zodiac (Widescreen Edition) & TV's "Heroes" plays Sandy Strickland, who gets caught up in the crime. Deborah Harry from the rock band Blondie had previously worked with director Henry Miller on "I Remember You Now." She has a cameo as a neighbor. Peter Stormare who was so impressive as the hair-triggered killer in Fargo (Special Edition) plays Blair Collet. While the art analysis is interesting, the film falls short as I cared less about Stan and the victims and was mostly turned off to the brutality. Ultimately, the bang was not worth the buck. Taxi!

***1/2 2007. Written and directed by Henry Miller. Five years after having killed Uncle Eddie, a serial killer, Det. Stan Aymard is asked to find another serial killer who likes to draw paintings with the blood of his victims. A treat for Willem Dafoe fans, ANAMORPH tells the improbable story of a killer piling on artistic considerations. The story and the mood of the movie are not very original but the study of Willem Dafoe's character could lead you to discover this film. Recommended.

I thought this movie tried to be a lot like Seven. It saw the killer almost go to super human or ridulous lengths to be ultra crazy or ultra creepy. In the end it really didn't end up being anything special at all and I felt like I had seen this movie before. Defoe is good in his role and the rest of the cast was pretty good though Mick Foley proved only with a few lines that he is no actor. Not a great movie and really not that good either.

Anamorph offers up a good dose of gloomy, moody atmosphere as it tells the story of burned out detective Stan Aubrey (Willem Dafoe) who is still haunted by an old case involving a serial killer. Things proceed to go from bad to worse when it appears a copycat killer is on the loose, and he has a particular interest in Stan. Anamorph doesn't offer anything new to the serial killer genre in the least, but what it does manage to achieve is the aforementioned atmosphere, and a compelling performance from Dafoe, who just sadly doesn't seem to get enough lead roles, especially the kind that he deserves. Other than the atmosphere and Dafoe, Anamorph also offers up some surprisingly interesting info on art history. Other than that though, there isn't enough here that seperates Anamorph from the rest of the pack, and the film ends up plodding along throughout a majority of its running time. Not to mention that Scott Speedman, Peter Storemare, and Clea DuVall are pretty well wasted in supporting roles. All that aside, Anamorph is worth a look regardless for fans of the genre or fans of Dafoe, but other than that, there probably isn't enough here to really hold your interest.

"Anamorph" focuses on veteran NYPD detective Stan (Willem Dafoe), who's drawn into a gruesome case involving a string of ghastly serial murders perpetrated by a killer who commits his crimes as an artist. As he investigates the killings, Stan finds he must confront his own deadly past. With each murder, the investigation takes a different, uglier turn. The closer he's drawn to the murders, the closer Stan comes to being a victim himself. The R-rated film has the look and feel of such movies as "Seven" and "Saw," with disturbing images and a sustained mood of pessimistic gloom.
Dafoe is hardly the perfect casting for a guy who may become a victim. He simply looks too rugged, too intimidating. But the script isn't bad, director H.S. Miller creates suspense, and the New York City setting has a sinister look reminiscent of "Taxi Driver." The title refers to anamorphosis, a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective to create two competing images on a single canvas -- a conventional image and a deformed version that appears when the work is viewed in some unconventional way. The DVD contains no extras.