At the Movies with Governor Tom: Brothers and In America

"Nuclear families have nuclear problems."

So says Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan. It's such a true statement you wonder how you never thought of it.

Tonight I went to the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, one of the venues for the nonprofit American Cinemateque and where I've gone many times for event screenings. Tonight's event was a double feature of the recently released Brothers as well as 2003's In America. Why those two, you ask? They're both directed by Jim Sheridan. Between films he as well as his Brothers leading man Tobey Maguire were there for a Q&A.

The man behind My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, and The Boxer, Jim's pretty much the reason the brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis has a career. Jim's one of those filmmakers who gets a lot of respect in the movie industry even if his films are never colossal blockbusters. I heard of him long before I ever saw anything he did. The first film of his I saw was In America back when it first came out in theaters. His film before that was 1997's The Boxer, which came out during my senior year of college, the year I started going to the movies a lot. I saw the previews for The Boxer many times in the theater but never did see it. Only in the past year and a half have I gotten his first two films on Netflix, My Left Foot and The Field. Between In America and Brothers he did Get Rich or Die Tryin' with 50 Cent. Yes, that 50 Cent. I remember Jim being interviewed on NPR when it came out in 2005. I was very intrigued. I'll need to get it on Netflix one of these days. A pudgy little Irishman isn't the first person you'd think of to helm an American gangster film, but from what I recall, it got decent reviews.

I watched My Left Foot on DVD in the summer of 2008, and The Field I just saw a few months ago. I enjoyed both. Between Daniel Day-Lewis and Richard Harris, Jim sure knows how to pick his leading actors. If you haven't seen these two films, you definitely should. My Left Foot got quite the Oscar attention. The Field, however, came and went the year after, 1990, without much attention. I hadn't even heard of it until an Irish colleague of mine recommended it. Richard Harris is bloody brilliant, as is Sean Bean, who plays his son. This was just before Sean's career took off as the villain in Patriot Games (the first movie I saw him in) followed by playing the villain yet again in Goldeneye. Based on a play, The Field is powerful stuff. And according to my Irish colleague, Cathal, it's a terrific example of the sometimes ridiculous lengths the Irish go to to protect their property.

I meant to see Brothers when it came out a month ago, but it's pretty much faded out already thanks to the holiday glut of tent pole pictures. It's a remake of the Danish film Brødre from 2004, starring Connie Nielsen. Connie's been in a ton of American stuff, Gladiator among the more notable projects. Did you know she was Danish? I actually saw Brødre when it came out. It was only playing at this one art house in Hollywood, down by the Farmers Market near 3rd and Fairfax where I almost never go because it's so out of the way. But it did get good reviews. I'd already known Connie was Danish but had never seen her in any Danish films. I was intrigued by the prospect of finally seeing her in her native element. If you haven't seen Brødre, throw that sucker on your queue. It's powerful stuff. And Connie Nielsen is awesome as always, only more so since she can focus on her performance and not worry about affecting an American accent.

The plots of the Danish original and Jim Sheridan's American remake are virtually identical. You've got two brothers, both in their twenties. The older one is the responsible family man with the hot wife and two daughters. The younger one's the black sheep of the family, in and out of jail for petty crimes and so on. The older one's in the military. He's called upon to go to Afghanistan where his transport aircraft is shot down. Most of the crew die except him and one other guy, both of whom are presumed dead by the military. His wife back home is notified, and the necessary grief ensues. The black sheep brother, meanwhile, slowly but surely shapes up. Among other things, he helps his brother's "widow" remodel her kitchen. The brothers' father (Sam Shepherd in the remake), who at first can't stand his younger son, eventually warms to him. In other words, things become hunky dory at home. Life for the older brother, on the hand, becomes living hell.

I put quote marks around "widow" because, of course, the older brother isn't really dead. No, I'm not spoiling the movie for you by saying that. This is revealed early on. Both films move full steam ahead on those parallel plot lines: The younger brother at home, the older brother in Nowheresville, Afghanistan where he and the other soldier are being held prisoner by the Taliban or whoever. They're kept in this little rat hole for months while their captors starve them and try to figure out what to do with them. It's almost like the Taliban are pretending to take their time deciding their fate so that the two prisoners are left to wallow in utter dread. And then something happens that completely screws up the older brother. I won't tell you what it is, but suffice it to say he comes back home with a major case of post traumatic stress disorder.

His wife and kid brother, meanwhile, are getting along famously. They never sleep together, but one night they do get cozy and kiss. And the two daughters adore their uncle and have taken to him as their new father. The extra dimension in the American remake is that the father, Sam Shepherd, is a Marine and Vietnam vet. The older brother, Tobey Maguire's character, is also a Marine and carries on the proud family tradition. That was a nice touch on screenwriter David Benioff's part. It strengthens the bond between the father and the older son while emphasizing the blackness of the younger brother's sheep. That, in turn, only sharpens the contrast in the dynamic in act three versus act one. The dad has become pals with the younger brother but has a hard time communicating with his Marine son. It's tragic irony. If there's anyone in that family who can relate to what Tobey Maguire's character is going through, it's his father, but his father's alcoholism gets in the way. To say the older son's PTSD compromises his relationship with his family is putting it mildly. The film doesn't exactly end on a happy note, but of course how could it? PTSD never really goes away. I've seen interviews with WWII vets still haunted by their experiences a half century after the fact.

I'm of two minds about this remake. On the one hand, the acting is impeccable. The production is slick and professional. It's easily one of the best performances of Tobey Maguire's career. Seriously, I got the feeling he was jonesing to throw himself into a meaty, more adult role after all that web slinging. His performance is the main reason for all the tension at the end. Jim Sheridan does a yeoman's job making you really feel the awkward dynamic. When Tobey Maguire's older daughter says something to him that is positively venomous, you cringe because you know--or you think you know--what's coming next.

On the other hand, as solid as this is, I'm not sure it was necessary. In general I'm not big on remakes. Of course there are remakes that improve upon the original. Ocean's Eleven is one example that comes to mind. But the original Brødre was already very well done. I only saw it that one time in May of 2004, but I can still call to mind many of the very tense scenes, especially that final showdown between the older brother and the cops. That was a real edge-of-your-seat climax. And it happened naturally, ya know? It didn't seem phony. The Danish original is more naturalistic, shot on handheld video and so on, although that's partly because writer-director Susanne Bier didn't have any money. Still, not having money didn't influence how she wrote her script. The story progresses, the family dynamics evolve, but you don't really notice it until the end. The beats are far less conspicuous. With this new version, it seems a tad too calculated and contrived. I mentioned above that the production is slick and polished, but I think it may have been a bit too polished. Another thing that bugged me is that it takes too long for Tobey Maguire to get home. Part of that stems from him taking too long to get to Afghanistan. It's a great setup at the end, with the older brother coming home after experiencing hell on earth for so many months. You're really interested in seeing what happens, but it doesn't last long. And finally, you've got main players who look too young for their roles. That's not really anyone's fault, but in Brødre, they're all adults. Natalie Portman's great 'n all, but she's too girly for this. Connie Nielsen, on the other hand, is all woman. When I first heard they were doing a remake, I wondered why they wouldn't get Connie Nielsen again since she's obviously familiar with the material and can do an impeccable American accent. Now that I've seen it, though, I can see that Connie and Tobey wouldn't've made a good couple. Tobey's too boyish. Connie would need a manlier man as her husband. Gerard Butler comes to mind, but he'd be better as the black sheep younger brother. Again, it's no one's fault, and I understand that built into the casting process is a marketing mentality. That is, who can we cast to sell the most tickets? They're all fine actors, but this is such a mature story. Anyway, out of five stars, I might give this three or so. It's good stuff. Jim Sheridan's the man. He has a knack for showing families at their most complex.

That leads me to the second film of the evening, In America. Of all the films he's done, this is probably the most personal. You've got a young family from Ireland: Dad Johnny, mom Sarah, and daughters Ariel and Christy. They're coming to New York so Johnny can pursue his dream of being an actor. The movie starts with them driving into New York State from Canada. And then cut to them arriving that night in Manhattan. Older daughter Christy, who narrates the film, has a great line in the voiceover: "We heard Manhattan before we ever saw it..." She perfectly sets up the chaos and cacophony in which they arrive with their beat-up station wagon. They find a place to live in this old house that's been converted into apartments. Only, it's mainly a haven for drug addicts and prostitutes. There's one vacancy left, the very top floor, which has become a makeshift pigeon coop. Johnny and Sarah don't mind. They're from Ireland, they're tough.

Whereas I criticized Jim Sheridan for being a bit too polished with Brothers, In America is more like the original Brødre. That is, it's more naturalistic. There's a clear plot driving the story forward, but it's happening less conspicuously. Like Brødre, you've got a family here (once again with two girls), only there's no black sheep uncle or stern father figure. It's just the four of them trying to adjust to a new life. They feel like visitors on another planet. That's the conflict. Can they make it?

Another difference is a mystical element Jim Sheridan inserts now and again. No, don't worry, it's not in your face and in no way does it detract from the realism. I'm referring to Frankie, the third child Johnny and Sarah had, who died shortly before the film begins. Eventually we learn that Frankie had a malignancy in his brain. And then he took a nasty spill down the stairs which, it's implied, was due to symptoms from the cancer. Johnny and Sarah had one of those wooden gates at the top of the stairs parents sometimes get for toddlers and pets. I'm not sure what side Frankie was on, but he tried unsuccessfully to climb over it. Frankie's ghost, in a metaphorical way, haunts the story. At the very beginning of the film, when they're in that queue of cars trying to get from Canada to New York, Christy talks about Frankie in her voiceover. Frankie has given her three wishes, she says. She needs to use them very wisely because they're the only three Frankie can give her. Right away she uses one when she sees the border agents giving her parents a hard time for being unemployed. She tells Frankie to let them into the United States. The border agent's stern countenance melts into cordiality. He starts chatting with the girls. Johnny tells the border agent they have three kids. Sarah corrects him. The border agent looks confused. Then they explain they lost their boy Frankie. This only gets the border agent even more on their side. So did Frankie really have a hand in their successful passage across the border? Who knows? Yes, Christy does use up her other two wishes by the time the film's over, and they are also successful. So it's kind of mystical without going all X-Files on you. Frankie and those three wishes tie the story together. You need something like that if you're the naturalistic kind of storyteller, ya know? Otherwise you risk losing your audience by going too far off course. Have an inciting incident, a recurring theme, something to keep the track straight. With In America Jim Sheridan achieves just the right balance of keeping it real while keeping the plot on course.

Another element that ties In America together is the character Mateo, played by Djimon Hounsou. First he's "the man who screams." But then the two girls fearlessly pound on his door on Halloween, not giving a care to his protests, until he finally opens the door. Over the course of the movie, the girls, and then Johnny and Sarah, get to know him. And in getting to know him, they all change, including Mateo. He's vital to that pesky story arc.

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed In America more than I enjoyed Brothers. That doesn't mean I prefer naturalistic family dramas, just that I prefer Jim Sheridan doing naturalistic family dramas instead of the polished Hollywood popcorn fare. Like any filmmaker, he has his strengths and weaknesses. When he sticks to those strengths.... You know what I mean. But I also know the man needs to earn a paycheck.

While I remember seeing the name "Frankie Sheridan" in the end credits the first time I saw In America, I never bothered to investigate who Frankie was. At the Q&A tonight, Jim cleared it up. Frankie was his brother. Like a lot of Irish families, Jim's was a large one, four boys and a girl. Frankie died when they were all still very young. And Jim said that to this day, each member of the family blames him- or herself. This was obviously the inspiration for Frankie in the film, but In America gets even more personal than that. Just like Johnny, Jim immigrated to the United States when he was in his early thirties. This would be the early 1980s. Yes, just like Johnny, he settled in New York with his wife and two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten. And yes, he originally wanted to be an actor. I'm not sure where in New York the film took place, but in real life the Sheridans settled in some crap apartment in Hell's Kitchen. The way Jim tells it now, though, they didn't think the apartment was crap. They didn't view themselves as poor. He said back in Ireland, at least when he was growing up, just about everyone was down on their luck. Poor equaled normal. The unemployment rate was in the teens, close to twenty percent. Crazy. So when they came over here, living below the poverty line in Hell's Kitchen didn't really faze them. It seemed normal.

I wish he would've talked more about the transition from acting to directing. He hardly has any acting credits on IMDb, so I have to assume that, like Johnny in the film, he was originally aiming toward theater. And how did he secure the rights to Christy Brown's memoir My Left Foot and convince the producers he could direct it? He must've had directing experience in theater. At any rate, he didn't talk about it. I only bring this up because, as someone who has designs on selling screenplays eventually, I always like hearing anecdotes about how the big names today got their foot in the proverbial door. I know how Jim's daughters got their foot in the door: Their dad let them cowrite the screenplay for In America.

Jim told a funny story about how the two girls in the film were cast. It was somewhere in Dublin, and they were having auditions. Sarah Bolger, who plays the older sister Christy, was the first person to read. Jim said she was great. He almost wanted to cast her there and then, but other girls were waiting their turn. When Jim started letting the second girl read, Sarah went up to him and was like, "Are you letting someone read my part?" With that kind of bravado, and her obvious acting skill, Jim gave into temptation and cast her there and then. Sarah told him that her kid sister Emma was waiting downstairs, and that Jim should cast her in the role of Christy's kid sister Ariel. I quote what Jim said tonight: "So I went downstairs and cast her." I have to say how refreshing that is. For most films with child actors, you always hear how the producers auditioned "thousands" of kids across the country or whatever. Sometimes I wonder: Did they really consider thousands? Then why does the kid they picked suck so much? I'm not sayin' such claims are designed to drum up audience interest and sell tickets, I'm just sayin'.

And so Sarah Bolger broke into the movie biz thanks to the two things Clint Eastwood said you need to do so: A little bit of talent. And a lot of luck. If Sarah hadn't been the first one to read, she may not have the career she has today. And she does have quite the career going for her. I know her mainly from the Showtime series The Tudors, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII. Sarah plays Mary Tudor, Henry's one and only child from his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Mary, by the way, is the one who inherits the throne after her father dies and rules with such an iron fist that she earns the nickname Bloody Mary. She was a very strict Catholic who sought to undo Dad's Protestant and liberal reforms. Sarah's nothing like that on the show, though. She's playing Mary as a teenager, when she was sweet and bashful, as well as wary whenever Dad visits. But she does have her opinions about religion. The show does a good job depicting how that side of her slowly but surely develops, almost as if to make up for the fact that Mom's dead and can no longer be the Catholic voice of the Tudor family. Anyway, not to get too sidetracked, Sarah's great on that show. And she's done some big-budget kids' movies, like Stormbreaker and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

One of the first questions Jim was asked, I think by the moderator, was about his rehearsal process for movies. Jim said he really doesn't have one. For theater, of course, rehearsal is absolutely essential (unless, I suppose, it's improv). An extreme example he cited was when he directed this series of six four-hour comedies staged consecutively over the course of twenty-four hours. He didn't say what all that was about, if it was for a festival or whatever, just that he had to do that. And he's directed tons of other theater. So when you've done that, you're used to scenes going on and on and on. In movies, the vast majority of scenes don't go north of two minutes. I can confirm this from when I studied film in college. My sophomore year I took a required course on film analysis. Among other things, this meant watching any film of your choice (well that's good) and writing a brief description of each scene. If I remember correctly, I picked Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. That sucker had, again if memory serves, something like eighty or ninety scenes in two hours and ten minutes. Anyway, Jim's point was why would he need to rehearse a measly two-minute scene after doing all that theater? "You just roll the camera and find your way," he said. That's awesome. I mean if that doesn't give hope to aspiring filmmakers everywhere, nothing will.

The moderator also asked him about his penchant for making films about dysfunctional families. This is where he used the line "Nuclear families have nuclear problems." I love that line. As someone who comes from a large and scattered brood, it really resonates. That's mainly what attracted him to Brødre. Its premise is ripe with family conflict. He talked a little about growing up in Ireland. His household was crammed. Besides having all their kids, Jim's parents also took in lodgers. "Thank God for those lodgers and their girlfriends," Jim said. His family had no shortage of drama. Dinner could be chockfull of tense silence around the table. If lodgers were sitting at the table, it would mean the Sheridan family could chat with them and take a break from all their problems. Since then, Jim's always been extra sensitive to the subtext of family dynamics, and how the atmosphere of a room can be changed so completely with the arrival and departure of one person, just like scenes in a play or a film.

As for how he felt about remaking another film, once again he put it in the context of theater. In theater the same plays are produced over and over again. No one gives it a thought. That's why he finds it weird in the movie world that once a movie's made, it becomes precious and should never be made again. I don't know, I sort of see his point. But you take one of those classics, like Casablanca or Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane. In addition to being timeless, they are very much products of their time and place. Remaking them today just wouldn't work. Citizen Kane is also known for all the innovation it introduced to the filmmaking world, in terms of its camera work and photography. So again, remaking it would be irrelevant to one of the key reasons people cite Citizen Kane as a classic. Jim kinda sorta dodged the question. Or maybe he was just being sarcastic. The Irish are known for their sarcastic wit. Or maybe he just liked the Danish original and wanted to do his own version of it as another link in his family drama chain. And that's fine.

As for how much they drew from the original, Tobey said he watched it once and then forgot about it. He said his memory is notoriously bad. Jim watched it a few times and then put it away and tried to be faithful to the overall spirit and theme of the film while making it his own. Whatever that means.

Neither Tobey nor Jim made any bones about it: The screenplay for their remake wasn't very good. That kind of surprised me. It was written by David Benioff, a screenwriter in his thirties who's already racked up quite the resume: The 25th Hour (based on his own novel), Troy, Stay (not so good), The Kite Runner, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I have a feeling he wasn't able to finish the final draft before the shoot began. Tobey said Brothers was shot during the writers strike two years ago. Once the strike began, they were forbidden from doing any rewrites. I remember reading about that, how studios, uncertain how long the strike would last (it ended up lasting about a hundred days), were racing to make as many movies as possible so they'd have extra stuff in case the strike went on forever.

At any rate, their script was less than ideal, and this was where Jim's knack for rolling the camera and finding his way really came in handy. Tobey said the way Jim shot most of the scenes was improvisatory. To a point. He used improv, but he "guided the improv," Tobey said. Actors would have leeway with dialogue and props so long as they still accomplished the scene's goal. Tobey also talked about how Jim tends to act out all the parts in a scene. He walks around the set and gesticulates and talks in the voices of the various characters while the actors stand around and watch. For many scenes, Tobey said, the script would have next to nothing to work with. The scenes were puzzles that they slowly put together through the process of Jim's winging it. Trust your gut, they both said.

One example they talked about was the birthday party scene toward the end. It's after Tobey's character has returned from Afghanistan. His younger daughter Maggie is having a birthday. A lot's going on in this scene that isn't said. For starters, Isabelle is sick and tired of her kid sister getting all the love and attention while she's basically ignored. This came up in at least one earlier scene, when she was complaining to her uncle. It doesn't matter if it's Maggie's birthday, in other words. She's the center of attention every day of the year. Well, it finally comes to a head at the birthday party. But that's not all. At this point her dad's been back a little while, and it's no secret the man's got issues. He's a simmering wide-eyed pot set to explode any minute now. He's telling Isabelle to stop complaining and eat her dinner. That's the proverbial straw for Isabelle. She grabs one of the balloons and squeezes it, not enough to pop it but enough to make that plastic squeeze sound. That, in turn, becomes the last straw for her father. During the Q&A Tobey said that on the page, nothing much happened in that scene. It was very bare bones. The balloon bit was something Jim thought of on the spot. Most of the scenes unfolded that way.

Speaking of the kiddies, Tobey told us that Jim likes to treat the child actors like adults and let them be in charge. Now that he himself is a father of two, including a son who was just born last May, Tobey understands that strategy perfectly. He says he pretty much lets his three-year-old daughter think she's running the show because in the long run that's how you stay on their good side and get them to cooperate when you tell them to do stuff. I can't help but wonder, though, where the line is drawn between letting them think they can have what they want and actually spoiling them.

The entire film was shot in New Mexico, including the Afghanistan stuff, which is pretty impressive. It's not that I thought they'd actually gone to Afghanistan. American films set in the Middle East are rarely shot there for obvious reasons, but sometimes they shoot out in the California desert or some such place. California's got plenty of deserts and mountains. Film crews use them as stand-ins for other countries all the time. After living here as long as I have, sometimes I can tell if a movie or a TV show is using Cali as a cast member. But here, none of the Afghanistan sequences looked like California at all. For a second I actually considered the possibility that Jim Sheridan had taken his cast and crew all the way over there. New Mexico makes sense, though. I've been there a couple times. You've got plenty of mountainous areas that get cold and snowy in the winters.

As for how Tobey lost all that weight for the last act of the film, he said he did it the good old-fashioned way: Diet and exercise. Only, since he has no day job to worry about, he was able to spend several hours a day in the gym instead of just a half-hour or an hour like the rest of us working stiffs. The only tough thing about maintaining a strict regimen was that he had to do it during the holidays while the rest of his family got to stuff themselves. Man, you have to wonder what Christmas is like at a household like his. Tobey, in case you didn't know, is married to the daughter of Ron Meyer, head honcho at Universal Studios. I mean it's like, "Hey guys, whose castle should we celebrate Christmas at this year?" Tobey's got a mansion in Beverly Hills that he bought with the zillions he made from the first Spider-Man. Anyway, I digress. I guess I can't feel too bad for him for having to diet during the holidays. He does get paid handsomely for his services after all.

I have to say that Jim Sheridan, for all his stature, is pretty humbling. He's this diminutive white-haired schlub who brushes off questions that are couched in praise, chews his fingernails whenever people pay him compliments, etc. When the moderator asked him about his casting process, Jim was like, "What process?" As evidenced with the two girls from In America, he doesn't really follow a template. In Brothers he cast this one woman, Iris Dunbar, in a tiny part during one of the Afghanistan scenes. She gets credited in the end as Burka Woman. A nothing part, but you know what? It was enough for Iris to get her SAG card. "God bless you, Jim," she said to him after the shoot. That's pretty cool, I have to say, because that SAG card changes everything for her. Like a lot of established directors, Jim wields a lot of power in a certain sense. Well, if you're an actor anyway. Most directors have very little clout with studios. In Brothers that showed itself with Tobey Maguire's voiceover. Personally I thought it was completely unnecessary. And apparently so did Jim. The studio, however, wanted it their way.

Speaking of casts, someone asked Tobey something I'd been wondering. In Brothers, Tobey and Natalie Portman are supposed to have been sweethearts since high school. Next to their bed is a photo of the two of them when they were teenagers. Looks pretty authentic. You see this in movies a lot, a photo of the main characters together when they were much younger, and it's clearly those same actors as younger people, but how could they have known each other then? Of course, it's possible they did, but you have to figure most of those photos are composites. But you're never sure because they can be convincing. In Brothers, my suspicion was confirmed. It was a composite. Tobey said the Natalie half of the photo was from her sixteenth birthday party in the summer of '97. And his half was from the set of 1993's This Boy's Life, his first film.

Jim also talked about his shooting style. Like casting, he goes with his gut. He almost always uses one camera to shoot scenes. I assume this might make shooting coverage more time consuming, but that assumes he shoots coverage. With as much improv as he does, you have to figure he'd get at least one coverage shot for each scene. For the birthday party scene, he used two cameras. As for In America, while it takes place in New York, most of it wasn't shot there. He wasn't given much time to shoot in the city, so he shot a bunch of footage with stand-ins before the real shoot began so that they could tackle most scenes in just a few takes.

When the moderator tried to feed him one of those ass-kiss questions about how Brothers was this very internal, cerebral film, a film about people thinking or some such goofy question, Jim came back with, "All films are like that." He totally brought the vibe back down to Earth. All actors look like--or should look like--they've got something on their mind no matter what kind of character they play. He cited Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis as examples. When they walk into a room, they always look like they've got a lot on their mind, and whatever it is, "you want to fix it," Jim said.

Someone asked Jim and Tobey about any feedback they've gotten from veterans. Jim hasn't gotten any feedback. Tobey said he hasn't gotten feedback from veterans so much as their families, the spouses (or in some cases widows/widowers) and children of soldiers. Just today he was at a lunch where a woman thanked him for letting her know what her Vietnam veteran father was going through when he was raising her. Most of the family feedback, however, has been less treacly. Tobey's heard plenty of feedback about soldiers coming home with five-alarm paranoia, carrying a gun with them wherever they go, even if it's just from the living room to the kitchen. And then, as with Tobey's character in the film, that paranoia precipitates equally heavy doses of insecurity and jealousy. As disturbing as Tobey's performance was in the film, at the end I could at least say to myself, "It's just a movie." But of course it isn't if you think about it.