SHANNON URTNOWSKI
A&E Assistant
By formulaic movie standards, writer-director Hunter Richards’ film debut “London” should be a success. It has love, conflict, self-doubt and drugs woven into nearly every scene. However, the movie lacks action and attempts to make up for the deficiency with a lot of cheap entertainment.
Chris Evans (“Cellular,” “Fantastic Four”) stars as Syd, a young New Yorker who gets caught up in harmful addictions after his girlfriend, London, played by Jessica Biel (“Stealth,” “Rules of Attraction”), leaves him after a two-year relationship.
London’s friends throw her a going-away party the night before she leaves New York for Los Angeles.
Syd, distraught by the fact that London is leaving without saying goodbye, decides to crash the party so that he can tell London he loves her.
Instead of facing her, Syd locks himself in the bathroom and sniffs cocaine with his new acquaintance, Bateman, played by Jason Statham (“The Italian Job,” “Transporter” and “Transporter 2”).
Syd passes out early in the movie, and he continues the drug abuse throughout the film. At times, it felt like nothing else was really occurring except the drug usage, which was neither entertaining nor enjoyable to watch. The movie was more like a documentary on his drug abuse.
Richards tries to lighten the heavy drug scenes with graphic sexual episodes. However, all that these scenes really do is make the movie even more uncomfortable to sit through.
The couple’s past relationship is portrayed through a series of flashbacks, which is one thing that Richards got right with directing the movie.
“London” is too dry, with its excessive amount of dialogue, and too graphic, with an excessive amount of offensive material, but the flashbacks are an interesting touch.
Though they are confusing at first because no shift in time is introduced, it is a good addition.
Unfortunately, the flashbacks did not help the poor quality of the movie, especially with every other line of the story ruined with unnecessary profanity.
Syd lets off the “F-bomb” more than one could count, and his friends are just as bad.
They are young and angry with the world, and they do not care about what they do or say.
Dialogue is a key component in “London,” and most of it takes place in the bathroom of the party.
An audience should expect explicit language from an R-rated movie, and it is acceptable when used with care, but “London” pushes the limits, subjecting viewers to an overwhelming amount of crude language.
It is clear that if viewers are looking for a family-friendly movie to watch during Spring Break, they should definitely avoid this film.
It certainly earned its R rating.
However, many young adults can relate to loss, and the honesty of these two men makes the film very thought-provoking.
Syd lost his love because he could not express his feelings, and Bateman’s ex-wife left him because he could not perform sexually.
Viewers are forced to reassess their own notions about the world, and it was satisfying to have this kind of a connection with a movie.
“London” is primarily made up of discourse and adult themes, which prevents the movie from being exciting by any means, but its simplicity makes it easy to understand and relate to. Viewers will feel like guests themselves at the uncomfortable going-away gathering.
02-16-2006
