In the last hundred years of filmmaking, there have been different eras where a vast array of subjects, styles, approaches, and themes have been taken to new levels.  For instance, in the late 60s and early 70s, directors took on serious subjects and presented them in a very real, raw, and groundbreaking manner.  Films such as Midnight Cowboy, Five Easy Pieces and Carnal Knowledge exposed audiences to lifestyles and characters never before experienced.

Then came Jaws and Star Wars which brought on the blockbuster era of action and special effects, and the small film that took on real-world issues fell to the wayside.  During the 90s, the so-called independent movement took hold, fueled by an infusion of foreign cash and the desire by many filmmakers to take on serious subjects again which created an influx of films — some good, such as The Crying Game, and many not so good (you know who you are).  The “Indie” movement has cooled somewhat and now what you get are these small films that were good enough to win festival awards with great acting but stories that leave you empty.  That leads us to First Look Pictures’ Forty Shades of Blue, directed by Ira Sachs (The Delta), written by first-timer Michael Rohatyn and Ira Sachs, and starring Russian standout Dina Korzun, Rip Torn (Men in Black), and Darren Burrows (Ed in Northern Exposure).

Forty Shades of Blue is about a young Russian woman, Laura, who lives in Memphis (hometown of director Sachs) with a much older legendary music mogul, Alan James, and has a young son with him.  She’s the typical lonely trophy wife, beautiful and kept and expected to act accordingly.  Laura’s life would probably have continued without change if not for the intrusion of Alan’s estranged son from a previous marriage, Michael, who returns home to escape troubles with his wife.  Michael’s jealousy, anger, and resentment towards his father, fueled by an attraction to Laura, become the center of the film.  The story is simple, the characters are not, and that is what makes this Sundance Film Festival 2005 Grand Jury Prize winner worthy of viewing; but like some good Kung Pao chicken, it leaves you a little wanting by the end.  

I was mesmerized by the simple but affective performance by Dina Korzun, who really does show forty shades of blue (as well as other colors), but the script never allows her the full opportunity to win the audience over.  Much of the publicity has gone to Rip Torn for a part that many actors could have played stereotypically.  Torn, who has a long history of great stage and screen performances, brings a very three-dimensional depiction of a man who can have anything he wants and is adored by thousands but who can’t achieve the love and respect from those closest to him.  Darren Burrows brings the same understated performance that he gave to Ed Chigliak in Northern Exposure as the son who never achieved the same greatness as his father but has to fight all the same, inherited, bad traits.  Understatement can sometimes get in the way of great storytelling, and in this case, the key relationship between Laura and Michael becomes so under the wire that you end up not caring what the characters end up doing.  You just want to shake them into realizing that there are people with real problems in the world, and when you put them in perspective, their lives really aren’t that bad.  Forty Shades of Blue deserves a viewing, but unless you like dramatic films that drop you in the middle of character’s lives and then ends with just a splotch of enlightenment, then I’d wait for the DVD.
  

Forty Shades of Blue is now playing at Film Forum in New York and starts Friday, October 7 at the Landmark’s Nuart  in Los Angeles and nationally throughout October.

Rich Burlingham