When Will I Be Loved Movie Review:


In a time when many characters in movies only say what is necessary to get from one scene to the next, I find great joy in being able to watch scenes between characters with dialogue that is sharp, intelligent and witty. Neve Campbell’s character, Vera, in James Toback’s movie “When Will I Be Loved” is a smart, quick-thinking, collected yet, to a degree, sympathetic femme fatale who is caught between two slimey men.

The first of these men is her boyfriend, Ford (Fred Weller). He is pretty naïve about Vera, who is also having sex with another girl when he is out, in a scene that reminded me of the one between Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” Ford suggests to her that she sleep with someone he knows: Count Tommaso Lupo from Italy. She asks him why, and he somehow manages simultaneously to explain that Lupo will pay $100,000 for it (which he wants), and also make it sound like it is for her own good. She agrees, and meets up with the Count.

The first encounter between the Count and Vera is the best scene in the movie; the dialogue is sharp and probing, yet while he tries to charm her and she tries to cut him down, he never asks explicitly for sex, and she never overtly insults him. He decides to give her a million dollars in cash (still not asking explicitly for sex). Vera figures out a way to play the men against each other. She doesn’t want money; she wants revenge on her husband for treating her like an object, and on the Count, for thinking she was for sale.

This clever little story is put together in a movie that is intriguing, witty, clever and that rarest of things in modern movies: erotic. Serious erotic movies are not made much today, and it is refreshing to see a movie that treats sex in a mature fashion and does it with intelligent characters; it’s almost as if the legacy of “Last Tango in Paris” has survived.

At 81 minutes, the movie is a bit short; I was so intrigued by Vera that I could have spent another hour with her. You get the sense, watching it, that you are only glimpsing into the life of a complicated individual; this is perhaps Campbell’s best and most subtle performance.

Toback, the writer of “The Gambler” and director of “Fingers,” shot the movie in twelve days on a small budget, and yet because of its use of Steadicam, it doesn’t need to resort to the shakey handheld camera work that I am utterly tired of. This movie, like Vera, has a collected, elegant look. She’s not one to get hysterical; she’s too smart for that. At times she might seem heartless, but I couldn’t stop watching her, or admiring her. In the end, the Count and Ford get bigger punishments than they deserve, but I still found myself rather liking Vera. I was, however, glad there was a movie screen between she and I. She’s potentially dangerous and nasty, and she has an eerie control of her emotions, but she’s also seductively attractive. This is a quality a good femme fatale needs in a movie, and it isn’t the sort of thing that you can get taught in acting school. You either have it or you don’t. Neve Campbell has it.

Adam Whyte

There's a stimulating improv vibe to this New York drama that helps keep it fresh and lively even as the contrived story and pretentious filmmaking kick in.

Vera (Campbell) is a rich kid who has just moved into a gorgeous Manhattan loft. She's a fast thinker and a straight talker--unpredictable and oddly honest about the way she deals with people. As she settles in, her mover-shaker boyfriend Ford (Weller) is working on his various shady business plans. He's willing to do almost anything to build his bank account, and when an Italian mob boss (Chianese) offers him $100,000 for a night with his girlfriend, he thinks it's a great idea.

The film isn't crossing the same territory as Indecent Proposal; these characters acknowledge that film and deal with the scenario in a very different way. This is more about the way people manipulate and coax each other into getting whatever it is they're looking for in life, often something they can't quite define. It's a rather mean premise--bleak and desperate, like something you'd expect from Neil LaBute. And it feels extremely stagey with its tricky dialog its and the contained sets and cast.

A sharp intelligence in the script is what keeps us watching, layering on the jagged humour and brittle confrontations to explore everyday deceptions, lusts and yearnings. These are extremely strong characters, and they're very well played by Campbell, Weller and Chianese, each of whom adds wrinkles of personality that liven up the interaction. Most of the dialog feels fascinatingly natural, which helps us take the themes on board.

Yet despite the fact that the central character is a very strong woman, the film is essentially a male fantasy. Ford deals in porn and indulges in ludicrous sex; Vera spends much of the film lovingly soaping herself in the shower. And as greed and control become the central factor, the vicious tone is somewhat wearing. Maybe this is true to a degree, but Toback never quite gets under the surface to find a point, so the film ends up feeling rather indulgent and hollow.

Rich Cline

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