 This
film starts off like any other with a cute "opposites attract"
couple getting together and seemingly falling for one another. Adam
(Paul Rudd), an undergrad majoring in English encounters Evelyn (Rachel
Weisz) a Masters Candidate in Art in a museum. "You're cute.
I don't like your hair," she tells him, and a romance is begun.
Evelyn gently begins encouraging
changes in Adam -- some good (lose a little weight, cut your hair),
some less so (get a nose job). “Shape” presents a real
moral predicament- Adam is being manipulated, but if it's mostly
for the better, is that so wrong?
Problems begin to surface when Evelyn meets Adam’s
two friends, engaged couple Phillip and Jenny, played by Fred Weller
and Gretchen Mol. After their first meeting Evelyn admits she hates
Phillip, who Adam has been friends with since the beginning of their
time at college.
LaBute stages “Shape” much like the
play it is based on (written by LaBute as well), often with only
two of the principal actors in a given scene. The dialogue is very
"play-like" as well; it has its own particular rhythms
that aren't entirely "realistic", but the writing is smart
and you have to stick with the story on its own terms. This is a
must see if you are into literary cinema.
This is the dark side of human interaction at its
best: ugly and cruel, but powerful and resonant nonetheless. It
is a distinctive look at the destructive way people really are underneath
all the everyday smooth talk.
“Shape” has a twist end that we should
have seen coming early on but didn't- all the pain and viciousness
come pouring out in a scene that’ll rile your emotions and
silently explode with the sound of people ripped apart by their
own uncorrected and unchecked flaws.
The Shape of Things is a film about insecurity,
appearances, and the perils of modern relationships. A must see. |
English student and museum guard Adam (Paul Rudd) becomes
the unsuspecting guinea pig for the ambitious project
of an art student (Rachel Weisz) with whom he's falling
in love. Her goal is to reshape the nerdy Adam into
someone else … and the question at stake is how
much Adam is willing to change for the woman he loves.
“The
Shape of Things” gets an A+ for unexpected endings. When the
climax reveals itself we are taken suddenly and sadly into the most
deceptive – and obvious – of movie resolutions. Neil
LaBute (Possession) gives us the story of Adam (Rudd) a nice, handsome-ish
young man working in a museum when he meets Evelyn (Weisz), a graduate
student getting ready to deface a priceless statue because it is
not “real.” The statue has been altered to cover the
nether-region and thus for Evelyn has become not-art. Adam is taken
by Evelyn’s love of art and her attraction to him seems inexplicable
except that he is a nice guy and kind of cute.
