Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World:
Tropical Malady-Asylum
8-17-05 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Two films opening this week – Tropical Malady and Asylum – detail the high price to be paid for obsessive love.
Though the films couldn’t be more different, they’re linked by this theme – underlying in the first, overt in the latter
– and each leaves you with a bit of that haunted feeling. It’s a good week at the movies for Doomed Romance. If
that’s your thing, head over to your local art house where both will unspool their long broken tape of love.
Of the two films, the subtitled Tropical Malady is by far the more creative endeavor but its lyrical form (it’s
told in two distinctive parts – a sort of tone poem to love) and languid unfolding may not be to all tastes. Asylum,
on the other hand, follows the course of true obsessive love, has tried and true veddy British performers Acting
Acting Acting and features Natasha Richardson debasing herself time and again just for another round in the sheets
with her young dark haired hottie. The Girl Can’t Help It might be a more apt title for this one.
On the other hand, we don’t see the simple country boy Tong and his soldier-cum-lover Keng, the central
characters in Malady, even kiss but the heat between them is palpable nevertheless. Certainly, it’s what keeps the
much more experienced Keng intrigued. Set in Thailand, the first half of the movie tracks the course of the
relationship between the two. Between patrols of the forest, Keng and Tong slowly fall for each other. Long days
spent in the country are intersected with leisurely strolls throughout the apparently nearby Bangkok. Though Keng
is repeatedly recognized by what are obviously former tricks, he only has eyes for Tong who doesn’t say much, has
a goofy smile and bats his eyes sweetly.
During one scene at a karaoke bar, Tong joins a female performer onstage, singing a ballad to Keng. Clearly,
Keng's ardor is returned but there’s something that holds Tong back. Finally, Keng confesses his love for Tong and
shyly asks if he can lay his head in Tong’s lap. I thought at last the film would give us a love scene but the couple
are interrupted by a middle-aged woman who takes them on another round of adventures, including an eerie visit
to a series of below ground caves.
All along the gorgeous landscape has played a third character in the film (at one point early on, writer-director
Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul even pauses long enough for us to hear the wind sighing) and at the mid-point
the unpredictability of nature comes to the forefront and the film splits into its second part. Tong, it seems, has
disappeared but local legend suggests that he has shape shifted into a wild animal. Keng ventures into the forest
to track him down after hearing his call (the call of the lovelorn, it seems). When Keng finally comes face to face
with the wild, naked Tong in the jungle it seems that at last he has caught his love prey. But as Weerasethakul
makes clear, love can’t always tame a wild heart.
This poetic film has a quiet, mystical power that constantly shifts between the modern and the ancient. The
juxtaposition of the city with its gadgets, brightly lit malls and clubs with the primitive country dwellings and
surroundings of Tong’s family adds another layer of ambiguity to the story. Not much happens in Tropical Malady
but it’s not much that happens beautifully.
Asylum, on the other hand, after its proper opening scenes is a good old fashioned melodrama played to the hilt
by Richardson, its star and executive producer and her supporting cast (headed by Sir Ian McKellen). Set in the
repressive 50s, Richardson plays Stella, the wife of Max (Hugh Bonneville) a dull prig who comes to a private
asylum for the very disturbed with their adolescent son. Stella has no taste for the staff politics of the asylum
(both her husband and McKellen who plays a psychiatrist, are bucking to become its new director) or the dreary
wives but Edgar (Marton Caskos), the inmate who’s fixing up their glass hothouse is another story.
Though Stella finds out that Edgar’s an inmate due to his insane jealously and the brutal way he killed his wife
because of it, she can’t keep her mitts off him. Soon she and the darkly handsome and frankly sexual Edgar are
vividly getting it on each day – even though they know their forbidden love is sure to come crashing down. And
boy does it ever – before you can say “physician heal thyself” all hell has broken loose.
Though Stella does get her groove back she pays a pretty high price for it. McKellen, who plays Edgar’s closeted
gay psychiatrist, is given the role of a jealous suitor and all around black boot and does a pale imitation of his Gods
& Monsters James Whale part. Richardson, who’s a knockout in the stylish 50s tailored clothes, aptly suggests the
inner fires that eventually burn down to ashes. It’s a performance with a nice arc – just what the melodramatic
script calls for – but suggesting that it’s the kind of role Joan Crawford would have fought for isn’t much more than
a backhanded compliment. Judy Parfitt, as always, offers expert support as Max’s disapproving mother. The
pretty music by Mark Mancina matches the gorgeous cinematography of Giles Nuttgens. If all this reminds you of
the little seen Diane Keaton-Mel Gibson mid-80s flop Mrs. Soffel it should. It’s nearly the same story – with a less
attractive cast.
Tropical Malady-Asylum
8-17-05 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Two films opening this week – Tropical Malady and Asylum – detail the high price to be paid for obsessive love.
Though the films couldn’t be more different, they’re linked by this theme – underlying in the first, overt in the latter
– and each leaves you with a bit of that haunted feeling. It’s a good week at the movies for Doomed Romance. If
that’s your thing, head over to your local art house where both will unspool their long broken tape of love.
Of the two films, the subtitled Tropical Malady is by far the more creative endeavor but its lyrical form (it’s
told in two distinctive parts – a sort of tone poem to love) and languid unfolding may not be to all tastes. Asylum,
on the other hand, follows the course of true obsessive love, has tried and true veddy British performers Acting
Acting Acting and features Natasha Richardson debasing herself time and again just for another round in the sheets
with her young dark haired hottie. The Girl Can’t Help It might be a more apt title for this one.
On the other hand, we don’t see the simple country boy Tong and his soldier-cum-lover Keng, the central
characters in Malady, even kiss but the heat between them is palpable nevertheless. Certainly, it’s what keeps the
much more experienced Keng intrigued. Set in Thailand, the first half of the movie tracks the course of the
relationship between the two. Between patrols of the forest, Keng and Tong slowly fall for each other. Long days
spent in the country are intersected with leisurely strolls throughout the apparently nearby Bangkok. Though Keng
is repeatedly recognized by what are obviously former tricks, he only has eyes for Tong who doesn’t say much, has
a goofy smile and bats his eyes sweetly.
During one scene at a karaoke bar, Tong joins a female performer onstage, singing a ballad to Keng. Clearly,
Keng's ardor is returned but there’s something that holds Tong back. Finally, Keng confesses his love for Tong and
shyly asks if he can lay his head in Tong’s lap. I thought at last the film would give us a love scene but the couple
are interrupted by a middle-aged woman who takes them on another round of adventures, including an eerie visit
to a series of below ground caves.
All along the gorgeous landscape has played a third character in the film (at one point early on, writer-director
Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul even pauses long enough for us to hear the wind sighing) and at the mid-point
the unpredictability of nature comes to the forefront and the film splits into its second part. Tong, it seems, has
disappeared but local legend suggests that he has shape shifted into a wild animal. Keng ventures into the forest
to track him down after hearing his call (the call of the lovelorn, it seems). When Keng finally comes face to face
with the wild, naked Tong in the jungle it seems that at last he has caught his love prey. But as Weerasethakul
makes clear, love can’t always tame a wild heart.
This poetic film has a quiet, mystical power that constantly shifts between the modern and the ancient. The
juxtaposition of the city with its gadgets, brightly lit malls and clubs with the primitive country dwellings and
surroundings of Tong’s family adds another layer of ambiguity to the story. Not much happens in Tropical Malady
but it’s not much that happens beautifully.
Asylum, on the other hand, after its proper opening scenes is a good old fashioned melodrama played to the hilt
by Richardson, its star and executive producer and her supporting cast (headed by Sir Ian McKellen). Set in the
repressive 50s, Richardson plays Stella, the wife of Max (Hugh Bonneville) a dull prig who comes to a private
asylum for the very disturbed with their adolescent son. Stella has no taste for the staff politics of the asylum
(both her husband and McKellen who plays a psychiatrist, are bucking to become its new director) or the dreary
wives but Edgar (Marton Caskos), the inmate who’s fixing up their glass hothouse is another story.
Though Stella finds out that Edgar’s an inmate due to his insane jealously and the brutal way he killed his wife
because of it, she can’t keep her mitts off him. Soon she and the darkly handsome and frankly sexual Edgar are
vividly getting it on each day – even though they know their forbidden love is sure to come crashing down. And
boy does it ever – before you can say “physician heal thyself” all hell has broken loose.
Though Stella does get her groove back she pays a pretty high price for it. McKellen, who plays Edgar’s closeted
gay psychiatrist, is given the role of a jealous suitor and all around black boot and does a pale imitation of his Gods
& Monsters James Whale part. Richardson, who’s a knockout in the stylish 50s tailored clothes, aptly suggests the
inner fires that eventually burn down to ashes. It’s a performance with a nice arc – just what the melodramatic
script calls for – but suggesting that it’s the kind of role Joan Crawford would have fought for isn’t much more than
a backhanded compliment. Judy Parfitt, as always, offers expert support as Max’s disapproving mother. The
pretty music by Mark Mancina matches the gorgeous cinematography of Giles Nuttgens. If all this reminds you of
the little seen Diane Keaton-Mel Gibson mid-80s flop Mrs. Soffel it should. It’s nearly the same story – with a less
attractive cast.
Obsession...but NOT the Calvin Klein kind
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