Men Behaving Badly

Arizona Daily Wildcat Kevin Spacy, Sean Penn, and Anna Paquin make a jailbait sandwich.

Some called it brilliant. Some called it misogynistic. Captivating. Repellent. Insightful. Misanthropic. Tedious. Enchanting.

What I saw was one of the best films I've ever had the privilege to sit through.

Based on a play by David Rabe, "Hurlyburly" focuses on Eddie (Sean Penn), a Hollywood talent agent at the end of his rope. He's been caught up in the worst aspects of the "industry" life: drugs, casual sex, manipulative and superficial relationships.

Eddie and his friends, including his roommate, Mickey (Kevin Spacey), Phil, a repellently violent psychopath (Chaz Palminteri) and Artie, a slimy social climber (Garry Shandling), all inhabit a realm of hedonism and amorality, leading lives without meaning, substance or joy.

It isn't hard to understand some of the criticisms of the film, but they are misguided, if applicable at all. Yes, the characters are all misanthropes. Misogyny, therefore, goes without saying. But the film, unlike the movie "In The Company Of Men," is not misanthropic itself. As opposed to endorsing or glorifying Nietzschean ideals, it explores them, revealing their negative consequences, and ultimately condemns them.

The dialogue is so perfectly crafted and delivered in such assured and rapid-fire fashion, it's obvious that no real person could speak like these characters; if we could, we'd never get tired of hearing ourselves talk. And with good reason: Rabe's screenplay (based on the original play) is linguistically and philosophically groundbreaking material, and the sheer delicacy of the constant repartee inherent in it (which one character perfectly labels as "semantic insanity") is the film's primary appeal.

Because of this, none of the characters in "Hurlyburly" are easy to play. Few of the lines are easy to deliver. The ability to handle both complexity and a stepped-up version of reality was required by the entire cast, and just about everyone pulls it off wonderfully, even if some of the performances are dulled by the sheer brilliance of Penn's.

Meg Ryan, as Bonnie, an erotic dancer and female counterpart for Eddie, has made possibly the boldest move of her career, completely discarding the cutesy, hard-to-get persona she's so well known for and taking on a persona that is nearly as repellent as the others in her unrepentant solipsism. The same could be said career-wise for Anna Paquin, as Donna, who, at only 15, is not only faced with sexually explicit situations, but given the task of sharing screen time with some of the most talented actors of our time; the confidence and presence she brings across is only more impressive for that.

Without Penn, however, "Hurlyburly" couldn't have reached the level it achieves. His performance defies comparison, and even Spacey's artful immersion in his role as Mickey comes off as short of perfection in the face of it. Nearly any performance would. That's appropriate though, considering that Penn is meant to be the focus - the world we're in is Eddie's world, and without him as the nexus to which everyone else is drawn, it wouldn't exist. Eddie is tragically captivating, both to those around him and to the onlooker.

The people who survive in this world do so by clinging to each other without any sort of positive reinforcement. They are together because they don't have anyone else. They don't respect each other because they don't respect themselves.

During one of Eddie's many rants, he walks outside onto the balcony, where we can see that he's still speaking, even though no one can hear him. And that's kind of the point: when no one is listening, when there's no answer to the questions that we have, how can we connect with humanity, either in others, or in ourselves?

The questions "Hurlyburly" asks are the questions we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives. It's an existential crisis unfolding before our eyes, coupled with the realization that there are no easy answers and only one easy way out.

On top of all of this, though, it's also important to point out that "Hurlyburly" is a comedy. A dark comedy, to be sure - possibly the darkest of the dark - but a comedy nonetheless: a comedy of the absurd. We don't always laugh because it's genuinely funny; but because sometimes it's the only thing we can do.

In that way, it's kind of like life.