Susan Granger’s review of “Laurel Canyon” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Frances McDormand is well on her way to being type-cast as a mother who embarrasses her son. She was hilarious in “Almost Famous” and now she’s a legendary fortysomething Los Angeles record producer named Jane who’s still sowing her wild oats. Her latest conquest is a pretentious BritPop singer (Alessandro Nivola) who’s barely fazed when Jane’s yuppie son Sam (Christian Bale), a psychiatrist-in-training, and his prim, petulant fiancee Alex (Kate Beckinsale) appear on the doorstep, having just graduated from Harvard Medical School. Typically, Jane had offered to lend them her LotusLand house for the summer but then realized she had a CD to finish and couldn’t vacate. So despite Alex’s doubts, the young couple move in and, predictably, Alex becomes intimately involved with Jane’s swingin’ sex life. At the same time, Sam is dazzled by a sexually predatory second-year resident (Natascha McElhone). Seduction abounds. Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko obviously relishes the lurid, bohemian lifestyle. While Jane is hardly the nurturing mother Sam craves, she’s an impulsive, boozy, bisexual hedonist who slurps vegetable juice, smokes pot, sleeps late, spews foul language and relishes living – a sexy, tough role that Frances McDormand envelops with obvious glee. Her high-octane portrayal of this free spirit is the best part of the picture. Both Sam and Alex are written as boring characters so it’s not surprising that the actors have a difficult time making them interesting or even empathetic. Curiously, Chodolenko’s first feature, “High Art,” had a similar character-arc flaw and dreary lack of resolution. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Laurel Canyon” is a cheerfully decadent 6, a kinky soap opera that bubbles with a pretentious Freudian froth.
