The Anniversary Party
In The Anniversary Party, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cummings (co-writers and directors) try to update the classic Hollywood line, “Hey everybody, let’s go out to the old barn and put on a show!” Sadly, the barn is not burned with them in it. Not that I really want them to die, but if they had been dead, this exercise in vanity would not have been made, and that wouldn’t have been a shame.
Jennifer and Alan play Sally and Joe, a Hollywood power couple who have been having marital problems for their entire marriage. To commemorate the fifth anniversary of their nuptials they have decided to have an anniversary party rather than spend the day alone with each other (which might have made a better film), and the film encompasses this one day.
And what a day it is! What an overblown, bloated, fat, stinking, pretentious day! The main thing that the film wants you, the viewer, to realize from that one day is that these are just plain ol’ ordinary people just like you and me with problems and arguments and philandering and drug use and lost dogs, too. Sally and Joe’s really great group of friends allow all of this to go on and they even join in, just to show Sally and Joe that their lifestyle is regular and average. It makes these people look pathetic.
Starring:
Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. Reilly, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates
Directed By:
Jennifer Jason Leigh & Alan Cumming
Release Date:
June 8, 2001
MPAA Rating:
R for language, drug use and nudity.
Distributors:
Fine Line Features
1 Star
Standouts in the group: Kevin Kline as an arrogant leading man trying to break his stereotypical mold and John C. Reilly as his director, who’s life is a train wreck waiting to happen. Reilly’s scene after almost drowning in Sally and Joe’s pool tore me up and was the high point of the film, even if it was a low point for him. One of the few times I smiled during this film was when Kline danced an impromptu ballet with his real life daughter. Seeing such a small simple thing in this two hour piece of tripe was light-hearted and wonderful.
Pans: Can I blame anyone besides the two people that started this whole thing? I think not. Where’s my hammer? Let the bashing begin.
Is there anyone more annoying than Alan Cummings? Jesus! He was annoying in Circle of Friends, he was annoying with his fake Russian accent in Goldeneye and I’m sure untold more films that I haven’t wanted to see. The only time I’ve really liked him was in Spy Kids where he played the naïve children’s television host Fegan Floop. But then again, he did have a director that wasn’t himself. He plays a man who is little more than an eight year old boy with the mental clarity of an four year old. He likes to be bad and he hates it when he gets caught. Well, Alan, we caught you again, in a case of BAD ACTING!
Jennifer Jason Leigh can do spaced-out, and she can do introspective loner, but a self-centered diva she can’t very well do. Her whining and complaining put me over the edge and made me wonder why Sally loved Joe or if she loved the idea of loving Joe? She should have left his ass ages ago, instead of sticking around for five years so we could have the story of their anniversary party.
If a time machine actually existed, I would have traveled back to stop myself from renting this. Please take my advice and get something else.