Lucas Versantvoort / 5
September 2014
To sum up what Depressi- I mean Detachment is like, just realize this is a grand social critique by
the man who directed American History X.
This leads me to only one way to describe Detachment:
its heart is in the right place and it has some compelling drama going for it,
but it’s too over the top to present its social critique in a completely
convincing manner. In a way, the same problems that plagued American History X now plague this film.
Our main character is a substitute teacher named Henry
Barthes, played by Adrien Brody whose face has a melancholy quality that makes
him a natural fit for this film. In addition to merely teaching what the school
wants him to teach, he actively tries to engage the students on an emotional
and ethical level, to teach them things about life and so on. He goes on about
the corrupting influence of the media and how the students must learn to think
for themselves, etc. You’d think that would be enough to fill one film, but we
also get a prostitute Henry pick up off the streets and tries to take care.
There’s also Henry’s dying grandfather who lives in a nursing home and various
employees at the school with problems of their own. The film thus tries to
paint an enormous critique of the high school system through various
characters.
What the film has going for it, are the same things American History X had going for it:
great acting and drama. Adrien Brody and the rest of the cast are all quite
great, particularly Brody. The film is at its preachy best during the classroom
scenes where Henry outlines several societal critiques in his bid to truly
educate his students in his short time there. Several other scenes, including
one where Henry verbally lashes one of the nursing home’s employees for not
taking care of his grandfather’s needs, also have a great sense of drama and
whether or not you’ll like/love/hate the film, there is no doubt that watching Detachment is an impactful, intense
experience.
The thing that really hurts this film, however, is the
same thing that hurt American History X:
over the top melodrama (complete with slow-motion). As the film goes on, the
film becomes increasingly melodramatic to the point that it becomes detrimental
to the messages the film intends to spread. When an important, tragic character
dies at the end, it feels too much as if the film – like American History X – suffers from It’s Not A Good Story, Unless Someone
Dies syndrome and that’s not what you want. You want the death to feel deserved,
which I feel this film did not. Also detrimental are the amount of well-known
actors in this film. This is one of those cases where the amount of stars don’t
mix with the type of film. An art-house film featuring a star-studded cast hurts
its aims for ‘realism’.
In the end it’s easy to see this film has its heart in
the right place. One can sense the anger behind all the social critique
delivered in its scenes. Yet it is this director Tony Kaye’s overwrought sense
of drama that makes the film devolve into an ever increasing spiral of sadness
and darkness which makes it hard to deliver the Big Message without alienating the
audience. Too much melodrama can turn off an audience and that’s what happened
for me. The film started off incredibly well, featuring lots of well-delivered
social critique, but by the end – especially when (spoiler) the overweight girl
died – the film became too dark and cliché-ridden. There was no light at the
end of the tunnel, no subplots that ended well. Now, this is of course in line
with the aims of the film, but how can I stay open to the film’s messages, when
all the film tosses at me is shit, a nonstop portrayal of a society trapped in
a downward spiral, regardless of the truths it contains?
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