I finished off my Cemetery Dance column, which is due on Thursday. I’ll probably reread it a couple of more times to make sure it’s polished, but I also have a book review to turn in on the same day, so I’m glad to have that finished. My to-do list was getting out of hand so getting to X a couple of things off it brings me much joy.
We watched an early Kevin Spacey movie (pre-Se7en and Usual Suspects) called Swimming with Sharks. It was one of my daughter’s class assignments for her Hollywood Fiction class. I’d never heard of it. It stars Frank Whaley (from The Dead Zone TV series and, recently from C.S.I. as the would-be FBI agent) as the new assistant for studio vice president Buddy (Spacey). Buddy is the worst boss you could ever imagine. He’s abusive, dismissive and childish. He delights in tearing Guy (Whaley) down every chance he gets, only to turn around and raise his hopes again with the promise of better things. Guy is an aspiring writer who believes that if he pays his dues by putting up with Buddy’s crap he can move up in the business. It says as much about him as it does about Buddy that he puts up with what he does for a year.
Something interesting happens over the course of the film, though. Spacey is able to humanize Buddy. He’s a monster, no question, but we learn a little about what made him that way. And Guy becomes less likable as he becomes more like Buddy. It’s like the cycle of domestic violence that trickles down from generation to generation. Guy’s reward for surviving Buddy is that he would get to be just like Buddy to someone else.
The ending of the movie is somewhat inscrutable. Something happens between the final time Guy pulls a gun and when he pulls the trigger. For most of the film, Guy has been torturing Buddy in his house. He snapped (though we don’t get to see exactly why until the end), beating him, cutting him with paper, pouring salt on his wounds. But then the whole scheme goes sideways and I’m not sure I understand exactly why he does what he does. We can come up with numerous theories, but it’s a little bit muddled and twisted. It’s worth watching for Spacey’s performance alone, though.
Just when Jack Bauer thought he had all the world’s problems solved, along comes another threat to the US. He should know by now that he doesn’t ever have any hope of knocking off work by 5 or 6 p.m.
I liked the way they handled the wedding episode on The Closer last night. It could have gone a lot of different ways, most of them badly, but they chose to just increase the tension a touch with Fritzy’s last-minute job, but all ended well. I loved Provenza’s parting shot at the culprit of the week. When asked if he was looking at a life sentence, Provenza said, “From the minute you said, ‘I do.'” That he should be the one to catch the bouquet was equally amusing.
