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Trailer
Official Site Director: Craig Lucas
Producer: David Newman, Campbell Scott, George VanBuskirk,
Lisa Zimble
Stars: Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard,
Bill Camp, Robin Bartlett, Linda Emond
MPAA Rating:
R
Year of Release: 2005
Running
Time: 101 minutes A film review by
Nicholas Schager
In 1995, the internet was still a strange, scary destination for most
Americans, a primary meeting place for pornography hounds and other
assorted lonely creeps who sought out the thrilling anonymity of the
web's myriad chat rooms. Based on one of his plays, Craig Lucas' (The
Secret Lives of Dentists, Prelude to a Kiss) directorial debut The
Dying Gaul is fascinated with the dangerous allure of these online
social venues, which provide users with identity secrecy and, thus, the
means to express taboo fantasies (and deal with emotionally corrosive
issues) from the comfort and safety of home. Part movie industry
critique and part Greek tragedy, Lucas' film charts the modem-enabled
turmoil between a married Tinsletown power couple and an aspiring gay
screenwriter in the luxurious Hollywood hills, a trio whose
interpersonal dynamic is irreparably disrupted thanks to the nasty
role-playing opportunities afforded by computers. Yet with its story of
rampant duplicity and showbiz shallowness tied to a now technologically
outdated mid-‘90s milieu, and with its satire weighed down by banality,
The Dying Gaul seems relevant only insofar as its cast effectively
pinpoints the vengeful malice born from spurned love and squandered
trust.
Jeffrey
(Campbell Scott) is a bottom line-driven producer interested in
Robert's (Peter Sarsgaard) script "The Dying Gaul," a
semi-autobiographical tale about AIDS based on his relationship with
his now-dead agent and partner Malcolm (Bill Camp). However, to make
the project commercially viable, Jeffrey demands that Robert change the
central couple from a homosexual to heterosexual duo. Jettisoning his
integrity, Robert sells out and does as Jeffrey asks, in the process
pocketing $1 million and establishing a close-knit friendship with
Jeffrey and his failed screenwriter wife Elaine (Patricia Clarkson),
whose life is so purposeless that learning how to control her
multi-million dollar house's blinds constitutes an exciting afternoon.
Yet the happy threesome's relationship is soon torn asunder when, after
learning that Robert frequents chat rooms, Elaine strikes up an
in-disguise online conversation with her new friend and learns that
he's having an affair with Jeffrey. This devastating discovery
frighteningly undercuts Elaine's sense of security and stability while
also igniting a desire for retribution, leading to a dangerous game of
cyberspace cat-and-mouse in which Elaine poses as the
back-from-the-dead spirit of Malcolm and, ultimately, each character's
true, less-than-savory personalities are drawn out into the blinding
L.A. light of day.
Though carefully avoiding long-winded speechifying, Lucas' writing
nonetheless never generates a truly believable set of circumstances,
his characters coming across like artificial constructs rather than
real people and his scenario appearing too schematically convenient.
Centered around a particular high-tech moment in time that's only
somewhat pertinent to today's hard-wired world, The Dying Gaul feels
like what it is - a stodgy adaptation of a decade-old play - an
impression that's further confirmed by the director's theatrical
enactment of Elaine/Malcolm and Robert's chat room discussions, their
close-up faces juxtaposed against black-and-white backgrounds like
ominous ancient busts on an empty stage. Despite Lucas' occasionally
clunky plotting and visual aesthetic, however, his film manages to keep
its head above water largely thanks to its three superb central
performances, with Scott bringing a greedy arrogance to Jeffrey and
Clarkson delicately conveying Elaine's confused hurt and fury. As
Robert, Sarsgaard frequently finds it difficult to infuse humanity into
a character who essentially functions as a dramatic device. Yet in a
scene of orgasmic release that one wishes were more emblematic of
Lucas' subdued drama, the versatile actor locates the lacerating
mixture of ecstasy and shame born from romantic betrayal.
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