Seattle Dispatch. 1.

Stuart Townsend and four central cast members - Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Andre Benjamin and Charlize Theron - brought his independently produced Battle in Seattle [site] back to the city where it really happened. Whatever you think of the film, it may be the most apropos film in the history of SIFF to open the festival: never has an opening night film been so inextricably tied to the city. You might think that the hometown audience who lived through (and, in many cases, participated in) the WTO protests and the disastrous police response would be the film's toughest audience for a film about their experience directed by an Irish actor who wasn't even there. Not just because of our own immediate experiences but because of the use of fictional stories to structure the film (the fictional Seattle Mayor Jim Tobin, played by Ray Liotta, stands in for the real Paul Schell) and Vancouver, BC doubling for Seattle in principle production (there were a few days of Seattle shooting to get key landmarks, but sharp eyes will detect Canadian road signage throughout the film).

Some of the stories are frankly unconvincing (Connie Nielsen gives perhaps the least dimensional performance of her career as a superficial TV reporter transformed by the experience) and others slip into all-too-familiar ruts (the rocky romance between Martin Henderson's passionate protest organizer and the angry guerilla activist played by Michelle Rodriguez), and the literal gut-punch of the experience of bystander Charlize Theron and the turmoil of cop Woody Harrelson is a messy way to get an emotional reaction from the audience (it works, by the way). But the film pushed all the right buttons in this very liberal crowd, who responded to key scenes and speeches and (rather repetitive) defining lines with cheers and applause.

That sounds condescending, I admit, but I have to hand it to Townsend for not only showing how the protests caught the city by surprise and capturing the chaos within the loose organization of protesters (such as the outbreaks of vandalism that almost derailed the non-violent actions and captured the focus of media coverage for a few news cycles), but also for getting beyond slogans to explain what the WTO was doing and what the protesters stood for, at least to come extent. And his most interesting (though least developed) story takes us into the tensions inside the meeting, where another protest was brewing among the representatives of the Third World nations whose concerns were being ignored. Townsend doesn't try to create a causal link, just show the parallels between those working within the system and those working outside for the same thing, and the revelation of this story, lost in the media coverage of the more visible public protests.

Townsend's approach is a mix of the conventional - with personal stories of the protesters and the police and others to bring us into the various arenas of the drama - and the political, and Townsend believes in the politics and the passion of the protesters; he makes their concerns heard over the media noise focused on the spectacle of conflict. In his Q&A, Townsend cited Medium Cool as his primary inspiration among many, and he took his camera into the midst of the protest scenes to try to get the immediacy and the energy seen in so much of the documentary record from both amateur and professional camera operators during the event. Townsend's efforts to be honest to the spirit of the event are apparent and the cast's commitment helps carry the film through its rougher patches.

Keeping with the Seattle theme: My Effortless Brilliance [site], from local Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton, debuted at SXSW earlier this year before its local debut this weekend. Where her debut feature, We Go Way Back, was autobiographical and rather tightly structured, Brilliance shifts both style and subject matter. It's a study of male relationships, specifically the "break-up" of old friends and the desperation with which one man (played by Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson), a novelist struggling to repeat the success of his first book, attempts to reconnect. His motivations are less out of affection than ego - dude, he was dumped!

The film's reception has been mixed, which may have as much to do with the seeming lack of narrative drive and plotting (I know a few people who believe the film is shapeless and hopelessly misguided) and its undeniable similarities to Old Joy as with the discomforting portrait of male relationships. Yet I found the texture of the relationships and the sly humor winning and was impressed with the performances, especially Nelson's, a natural in the role, subtly establishing the sense of ego and vulnerability and self-aggrandizement in the character with brave intimacy. (In the interests of full disclosure, let me say that Nelson is an acquaintance of mine, but quite frankly I was ready to cringe at seeing him onscreen, so his triumph was a genuine - and happy - surprise.)

Posted by dwhudson at May 23, 2008 12:24 PM