Marathon UpdateFaces John Cassavetes' "Faces" is the sort of film that makes you want to grab people by the neck and drag them into the theater and shout: "Here!" It would be a triumphant shout.
There's a reason why people enter the world of Cassavetes with great hesitation. There's an enormous self-indulgence built into his process. While striving to create an absolute realism never seen on the screen, Cassavetes gives his actors a lot of rope, and risks hanging his film. Husbands is a notorious example of this, but I found it on full display and strutting like a peacock in Faces.
A big step up from the scruffiness of Shadows, Faces uses professional actors and they all give extremely professional performances. Often the camera feels like a documentary, capturing real life dinner parties and emotional breakdowns. This is what Cassavetes is famous for. But a lot of it is about as interesting as being at a real life party with none of your friends and where you're not allowed to participate. You just sit there watching everyone else amuse themselves or snap at others. In capturing reality, Cassavetes also pinpoints the reason why we go to the movies... to escape the sometimes obnoxiousness and tedium of reality.
The big sin here truly is the running time. This is the kind of thing that can be exciting in small doses, but Faces runs on for over two hours. Nearly all of the scenes feel three times longer than they need to be. Cassavetes has his performances down, but he hasn't yet attached them to a story that justifies the length. Let it be known I've already seen A Woman Under the Influence (
***1/2), which is even longer but has enough drama to make for a worthwhile experience. This has a hook, revealed about 30 minutes in, and then the endless, pointless yammering continues. To a point.
Here's where it gets interesting. I was waiting for Oscar Nominated Seymour Cassel to come in and hopefully save this picture. Initially his dancing fool jibber-jabber was just as annoying as everyone else, but then the film pairs him off with Lynn Carlin, and it gets pretty darn good. Here, near the end of the picture, it finally got interesting for me. So much so that I even loved the final scene, which was between two people I didn't care for towards the beginning. I started to think there is something here, beyond the pursuit of pure realism. It's possible to still create high drama. Tell me there's an 80 minute cut of Faces and I'll gladly give this another chance, but as is I cannot recommend it.
RATING: *1/2The title 'Killing of a Chinese Bookie' already has more story than Faces. At this point I'm not expecting too much.