Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Alice Englert
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Alice Englert, Ben Whishaw, Dasha Nekrasova, Karan
Gill, Marlon Williams
Australian actress Alice Englert makes an uncomfortable transition
to writing and directing with her feature debut Bad Behaviour. It's a movie that hints at the sort of filmmaker Englert wishes to
become - one more influenced by Hal Ashby than her own mother, Jane
Campion, who pops up in a cameo here - but it's so lacking in the most
basic elements of character shading that you might wonder if it's the
final movie in a trilogy rather than a standalone feature.
Jennifer Connelly gets a rare and welcome lead role as Lucy, a
former child star who is now...well, that's the thing. I don't what she is
now, and neither does Lucy. That's kind of the point, that Lucy has become
lost in life, but a directionless character needs a steady film to anchor
them, and Bad Behaviour is narratively rudderless, drifting
from one kooky idea to the next. You wonder if Englert isn't working with
a script but rather from a wall of post-it notes.
Lucy decides to check into a retreat run by spiritual guru Elon Bello (Ben Whishaw). Elon's credo is as half-baked as the rest of the film, based around
vague pronouncements like "Never give in to hope" and "don't think, be."
I've seen action heroes played by Steven Seagal with more cogent
philosophies.
It's never entirely clear if Lucy is onboard with Elon's ways. At times
she takes it as seriously as Jack Nicholson takes incarceration in
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, yet she takes umbrage when others fail to commit to the programme in
the way she sees fit. This puts her on a collision course with Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova), a narcissistic model who claims to harbour suicidal feelings.
Is the film mocking the self-help industry? I think so, but then maybe
it's just because it presents itself as such an easy target that Englert
can't resist taking a few cheap shots. Whishaw does his best to imbue his
character with some sort of depth, but it's never clear whether he's
suffering a crisis of faith or is becoming guilt-ridden at taking money
from his troubled clients.
A sub-plot takes us to New Zealand where Lucy's daughter, Dylan
(Englert), is working as a stunt performer on a production that seems to
be based on the recent Planet of the Apes series. Often clad in motion
capture outfits, Dylan is having a vague crisis of her own and is
romantically entangled with an older man (Marlon Williams). There's
a fascinating movie to be made about the temporary relationships that form
between below the line folks working on lengthy movie shoots, but this
isn't it.
The final act sees Lucy and Dylan reunited, but the film doesn't know
what to do with this mother/daughter dynamic. There's a lot of sloppy
backstory revealed through clunky dialogue, but it's difficult to buy into
the pair having a relationship that existed before the cameras began to
roll.
There are a few clever comic touches that suggest Englert has a devillish
sense of humour. It's a shame then that she didn't go for all-out comedy
with her debut, as whenever Bad Behaviour decides to take
itself seriously it's thoroughly unconvincing.
Bad Behaviour is on UK/ROI VOD now.
