Susan Granger’s review of “I Melt With You” (Magnolia Pictures)
Four middle-aged men drink, debauch and destroy themselves during their annual weekend reunion at a rented beach house on California’s picturesque Big Sur in this wretchedly excessive, almost deafening, music-driven cinematic exercise.
“Words are tools,” Richard (Thomas Jane) declares. He’s a struggling, depressed novelist, whose career has stalled, forcing him to earn a living teaching high-school English. In the middle of a divorce, Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a doctor whose practice has been compromised because he takes bribes to prescribe pharmaceuticals for wealthy, female patients. Family man Rob (Jeremy Piven) is a Wall Street financial analyst who is being investigated by federal authorities. Self-loathing, vulnerable Tim (Christian McKay) is still mourning the outcome of a tragic automobile accident – although the bacchanal is ostensibly to celebrate his birthday.
“Unless we remember our yesterdays, there will be no tomorrows,” says Tom Snyder in a TV clip.
Not surprisingly, each of these former college buddies, whose faces are etched with frustration and disappointment, has something to hide: a secret shame or regret. Joining their hedonistic orgy of bonding soul-baring and self-revelatory confessions on the third day is a pretty, blonde bartender and her three women friends. Then when tragedy inevitably strikes, as one of the men commits suicide, the three remaining have to decide how to dispose of their friend’s dead body. That’s soon accompanied by the almost comical arrival of a local cop (Carla Gugino). Fueled by prodigious amounts of cocaine consumption, prescription drugs and drink, it’s obvious that the once-frolicking male foursome is aimed toward a ludicrous, seemingly endless finale.
While each of the actors, presumably, does his best, Glenn Porter’s contrived, midlife-crisis script and Mark Pellington’s disturbingly self-indulgent direction dilute their efforts –and it certainly doesn’t help that the soundtrack blares extraordinarily loud music from The Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, The Clash, Dead Kennedys and Modern English. FYI: the title is taken from a Modern English song.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I Melt With You” is an edgy, despairing 2, disintegrating into a soggy mess.
