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| Directed by Spike Lee; Starring John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Rispoli, Saverio Guerra, Brian Tarantina, Al Palagonia, Ken Garito, Bebe Neuwirth, Patti LuPone, Mike Starr, Anthony LaPaglia, Roger Guenveur Smith, Ben Gazzara, Joe Lisi, James Reno, Arthur J. Nascarella, John Savage, Michael Badalucco, Spike Lee, and Jimmy Breslin |
I have been a fan of Spike Lee since seeing Do the Right Thing and have followed his career through all the ups and downs since. He has shown me terrific drama (Do the Right Thing), mesmerizing violence (Clockers), and interesting characters (Get on the Bus), but one thing he has never perfected is making a film completely free of African American themes. His latest film Summer of Sam attempts to do so with poor results, even though the only black character of any stature in the film is a news reporter played by himself (though I will admit that when he makes a poor choice in interviewing some black Brooklynites it is the best part of the film).
Summer of Sam is in a way about the killings of 1977 by the man called Son of Sam, David Birkowitz. But that is only the backdrop for the film, it is the killings mixed with the hot summer of that year that affect the characters of the film even if never really physically. That is the simple reason why the film is called Summer of Sam and not Son of Sam, the Son of Sam character is simply a supporting role.
What Summer of Sam really is about is a group of old friends that turn on each other in the wake of the killings. One of the friends, Vinny (Leguizamo) is having problems in the field of being faithful to his wife Dionna (Sorvino). This begins to trouble him after he is in the area of one of the killings and sees God’s sparing of him as a sign to stop cheating on his wife and he promises to stop, a promise he quickly backs out on. Meanwhile a friend that had left the neighborhood Ritchie (Brody) returns, but has picked up a new punk look and a fake British accent. The film more or less follows the growing feeling amongst the neighborhood that Ritchie is the serial killer and the loss of trust between Ritchie and Vinny. Meanwhile Vinnie and Dionna quickly grow more and more apart.
I liked the way Spike Lee used the camera, but not what he used it on. The characters are as one dimensional as a Warner Bros. cartoon and I really couldn’t have cared less what happened to them. While I was enjoying the few scenes of Birkowitz going crazy (the talking dog scene is fun) and his lack of care for who he kills, I was forced to take down useless and uninteresting subplots. Lee seemed to know exactly what he wanted, easily proven by his well done direction, but he seemed to take little care for what would come out of what he wanted. Yes the idea of having a film about people tangently touched by an occurrence was interesting, but the trick is making the finished product interesting itself. The cast makes a good try at the material (that is all but Leguizamo), but they cannot save a dying script. It is an overlong mess of a film, but still has some redeeming features.
