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BY DANIEL BAIG | NOTE:
This is a pretty much spoiler-FREE review! However, the same can almost
certainly not be said for most other reviews which will be out there for
Alias Betty. So go ahead and read mine with no worries, but beware
of other ones before you go see this movie (which I highly recommend).
Alias Betty, which opens this Friday (October 4th)
in Los Angeles (its already opened in New York), is one of the most outrageously
entertaining films Ive seen in a long time. Id say its one of the
four most enjoyable new movies Ive seen this year so far (along
with About A Boy, Lilo & Stitch, and the upcoming The
Happiness of the Katakuris).
Betty (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a successful new French writer who has
recently returned to France, her young son in tow, after the end of a
relationship in New York City. Using some of her significant newfound
wealth (thanks to her books bestseller status), she proceeds to set up
a very nice home for herself and little Joseph in a distant suburb of
Paris. (Definitely not the Paris tourists generally see, or would care
to see.) Shortly after the arrival, for a visit, of her somewhat estranged
mother Margot (Nicole Garcia), a terrible tragedy strikes Bettys little
family. In response, Margot, who suffers from porphyry, a blood
condition that can cause on-and-off-again mental illness, takes an extremely
dramatic and problematic (not to mention illegal) step to restore some
of her daughters happiness. Complications, as they say, ensue.
Boy do they ensue!! Alias Bettys writer and director,
Claude Miller, adapting (apparently pretty faithfully, with the most significant
change being a shift in locale from London to France) the novel Tree
of Hands by acclaimed crime/mystery/suspense writer Ruth Rendell,
has managed to dazzlingly tie together an almost dauntingly large number
of characters and plot strands into an extremely satisfying whole.
The end result leaves one feeling as if one had just seen an unassuming
magician triumphantly pull of a very complicated trick, just as he had
promised he would, pleasantly surprising his audience who, though they
had wanted him to succeed, had had grave doubts hed be able to.
I will admit that I definitely had my doubts in the beginning stretches
of Alias Betty. The opening segment is shot on digital video,
and is murky brown. I thought with dismay, Oh, no, not another ugly
cheap looking DV film. But it turned out that the video was only utilized
for that opening sequence, which is set in the past it was just another
variation of contemporary movies frequent utilization of black and white,
or the ever popular sepia-tone, to indicate a scene is taking place years
prior to the main body of the story. Thankfully, once Alias Bettys
action switches to the present, which happens quite soon, were in a normally
lit world captured on film.
However, once that concern was alleviated, I soon began to worry again.
Before the plot is really set in motion, theres a fair amount of time
devoted to establishing the relationship between Betty and Margot. These
scenes, not surprisingly its a French film, after all are rather
talky; theyre also almost painful to watch, as Margot is, though shes
only intermittently aware of it, rather a monster in some ways. In this
first part of the movie, she could easily give Scarlett OHara a run for
her money in a competition to decide Most Callous, Self-centered, and
High Strung Female Character in a Motion Picture. It is only when she
is forced to finally take charge of her daughters life for a while and
act maternally (something which is implied didnt really happen during
Bettys childhood) that we see shes not a one-dimensional character.
And it is only when, in a very twisted fashion, she tries to make amends
for a lifetime of failure as a mother, that Alias Betty starts
to get exciting.
So in retrospect, these for me somewhat exasperating early scenes, often
shot with handheld cameras, which I usually find annoying (and this was
no exception), such as one where Betty and her mother stand in Bettys
kitchen and lay guilt trips on each other, are justified. But during
that kitchen scene in particular, I found myself thinking, Was I misinformed?
I thought this was supposed to be a thriller.
Well, it is, and it does end up having a complex plot which plays out
in a grippingly suspenseful way. But at first, its a drama about psychic
(as well as physical) scars, and then for a while a drama about grief
(handled far more convincingly here than in another new movie, Moonlight
Mile, which is ostensibly all about grief).
Although, to be really fair, I should note that that murky, shot-on-video
opening scene of Alias Bettys is definitely a scene from
a thriller. Before the movie even properly begins, actually, its put
us on edge while the screen is still black, things start with a BANG
when silence is suddenly shattered by the very loud noises of a train.
Then blurry flashes of gray light start to rapidly come and go, eventually
revealed as glimpses through a trains windows of a drab, beginning-of-winter
landscape passing by too quickly to make out anything distinct.
By now youd think it would be just about an impossible task to freshly
make being in a train compartment an interesting way to begin a
movie. Yet Miller has managed it here; the mood is a menacing one.
The very brief first scene combines elements from at least two Hitchcock
films. Its a shocking and disturbing opening, though somewhat marred
by it being a little hard to make out whats happening though the answer
is revealed soon enough, thanks to a terrific cut to the present day.
Thriller is still a bit of a deceptive term to describe Alias Betty.
Suspense film is much more to the point. By the films conclusion,
it has almost become caper-esque very much like films such as Get
Shorty, actually, with a similarly just about perfect (and funny)
ending.
The American title of the movie, by the way, is also misleading. The
French title is accurately translated into English as Betty Fisher and
Other Stories which is exactly what the film was called when it was
released in England. I guess the fear was that in America that would
sound too much like an anthology, and not much like a thriller. I can
understand that rationale for not using the original title. But Alias
Betty makes you think that the plot is somehow going to revolve around
Betty having a secret identity, or something along those lines.
But, though Alias Betty is actually very concerned with switching
identities, mistaken identities, etc., the focus of these things aint
Betty. Yes, it turns out Betty isnt Bettys real name, but this fact
is absolutely not important to the plot. (I actually totally
forgot about it its only mentioned once, and then only briefly , and
was wondering for a little while afterwards about why the movie was being
called what it was.) Its somewhat important thematically, as well as
informing the character, but Betty doesnt turn out to be a La Femme
Nikita-like secret agent or anything.
Alias Betty is not a perfect movie. It does indulge in
a couple of credibility-stretchers. For example, would dealers in fake
or stolen passports really trade them openly in a well-lit, crowded
cafi? Also, its barely believable that someone whose image is being
broadcast and printed all over the place is never recognized, despite
going out in public a lot, including once in a store, the nature of which
would make it an especially likely place for said person to be
recognized. (You see the efforts Im making here not to give anything
specific away in advance.)
Alias Betty has one more thing working against it: the timing
of its release here in the States. Although it actually came out in France
just under a year ago, here it has the unfortunate burden of appearing
on screens after . . . Okay, to explain what Im talking about I will
have to resort to a spoiler (but a not-terribly-spoiling one, as what
I will broach is something that happens quite early on in the film, and
as I hinted at at the top of this review, is also something sure to be
mentioned in every other review of Alias Betty as well, and
is totally given away in the trailer at least, in the French trailer,
which is the only one I can find). So, skip just the next paragraph if
you want to be kept absolutely in the dark, and are confident you wont
be upset by any conceivable uncomfortable subject matter the movie might
deal with:
NOT-TERRIBLY-SPOILING SPOILER:
Okay, heres the thing: Alias Betty revolves around the kidnapping
of a child. Although in this story, unlike many of the tragic events
so in the headlines of late, everything pretty much works out the child
comes to no harm whatsoever. What might upset people, though, in addition
just to the fact that here is an entertainment with a child kidnapping
at its center, is that the kidnapping is played to a certain degree for
laughs. Wait, dont leave that sounds terrible, but its not. I dont
mean it makes light of the situation, because it doesnt, but there are
strong elements of farce on display. Theres also the natural possibility
that people might not be in the mood right now for a movie which suggests
that there are cases where a kidnapping might actually be the best thing
for a child.)
OKAY, END NOT-TERRIBLY-SPOILING SPOILER
As Alias Betty entered its final third, yet again I spoke to myself
with some concern. By now, so many characters, not all of them obviously
related, had been introduced, with so many separate plotlines, in addition
to seemingly insurmountable complications piling up for Betty and her
family, that I wondered, This story is getting crazy complicated!
Is this all going to come together somehow?? Where are we going
with some of this stuff? Surely Millers going to have to drop the ball
somewhere.
But you know what? He doesnt. Everything does all come together,
with a lot of humor. And rather like a fairy tale (an old, unsanitized
one that is), though the heroine does have to make some tough sacrifices,
the good end up happily, the bad come to grim ends, and those somewhere
in between get their comeuppance. Justice is (for some, very harshly)
served, albeit not in societally approved ways.
I left the theater feeling exhilarated. I hope you will too.
Grade: A/A+
P.S. Nice piano score.
P.P.S. Dog Day Afternoon. Youll understand why I mention it,
if youve seen that movie, after you see this one.
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