Slipstream
(2007/Sony DVD/Anthony Hopkins)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: C
Directing
is something so many people want to do and even biggest actors around
eventually gets around to doing so. In
Anthony Hopkins case, he decided to do something experimental, autobiographical
and a project that comes across as if David Lynch replaced Woody Allen on Stardust Memories. Slipstream
(2007) is a critique of the pressure the entertainment industry has put on his
life, the compromises that bother his, potential manic depression as a result
and an attempt to excise some of those demons.
Also
written by Hopkins, he plays a copy of himself and there is much here that is
what they would call post-modern. He is
seeing other’s deaths, his own death, the death of possibly his ego, death of
film art (this is shot in HD) and a world with so much media that it overlaps
as if it were more than one world mixing with each other. Time and/or dimensional travel is suggested,
but it is not a Science Fiction work by any means.
Because
of his status, he was able to attract a formidable cast that includes John
Turturro, Camryn Manheim, Michael Clark Duncan, Jeffrey Tambor, Christian
Slater, Stella Arroyave, Fionnula Flanagan and Kevin McCarthy. They are al interesting in this sometimes
surreal film and though it never really adds up, it is the best Hopkins can do
to translate the horrors of the dark side of a career that he nearly quit and
after getting very ill on a particular film a few years ago (the producers
would not get him medical treatment because it was not in the budget) abandoned
all together.
Even when
it does not work, if you can tolerate the out-of-wack pattern of the whole
thing, it can be interesting and you might (like this critic) want to stay with
it just to see the outcome. Though not a
success, it is an interesting non-success you might want to see too.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in digital High Definition
video (Panavision Genesis) by the great Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.F.C., who is
obviously doing some experimenting of his own.
I was not happy with the overall result, but realize he managed to keep
this together where a vast majority of cinematographers would have gone overboard
or not been able to get many of the shots.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not as surrounding as expected, something I
would have expected with the opportunities this would have offered.
Extras
include a sincere commentary by Hopkins, deleted scenes that are fairly good
and a making of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
