Thursday, December 16, 2010

Fixtures, Forces, and Friends

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
directed by Edgar Wright
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

Third acts are Edgar Wright's weakness, and Jason Schwartzman lacks the magnetism and the cruelty necessary to be Gideon Graves. Gideon is pathetic and irresistible - Roman DeBeers with better looks and more swagger - and for that, you either cast a nobody with a certain something, or you cast a star. The merely recognizable face won't cut it.

Nor is Michael Cera pretty enough to be Scott, although I liked Michael Cera's performance. Scott Pilgrim's heroes are selfish twenty-somethings who accommodate one another's narcissism. Small cuts are inflicted with relative indifference, and actions are thoughtless, not carefully considered. The books are a marvel for growing up and accepting responsibility for other people's hearts. They encourage our potential for change.

Too, O'Malley's universe is a catalogue of the marvelous boys and girls that boys and girls meet in the course of a lifetime. Every one of Scott's exes is worthy of his love and undeserving of his mean-spiritedness. Wright, at his best, understands that, and Michael Cera - long the hapless bystander - sells it. You'd think, from my description, of a morose shuffle in the snow, but if Kieran Culkin can animate his droll, everyone can have fun. They do. It's a winter dreamland, orbiting the sun of Mary Elizabeth Winstead's smile - a nice little date night from out of the cold.