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OTHER REVIEWS: Finding
Forrester High
Fidelity Loser Saving
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Orange County  BY: DAVID PERRY In Society and Solitude, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "A man builds a fine house: and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep in repair, the rest of his days." But what about the progeny brought into this house? I suppose, they instead must turn to the Thomas Wolfe novel title, You Can't Go Home Again. Jake Kasdan, Colin Hanks, and Schuyler Fisk all face this question; they are all progeny of well regarded talents in the film industry. They suffer from the Jesus' Son conundrum, seemingly coming together in an effort that might prove all three of them on their own. Kasdan (son of director Lawrence and Meg Kasdan), Hanks (son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson), and Fisk (daughter of actress Sissy Spacek and art director Jack Fisk) have all seen what its like to live in the shadows of their parents -- Orange County, if a half-hearted effort at times, gets to be their first chance to shine without any notices of who's who -- too bad every review under the sun (as is hard to do when analyzing this film) has pointed out their well known sires. Orange County follows the attempt of well-meaning surfer-come-top-student Shaun Brumder (Hanks) to get himself into Stanford and out of his posh, seaside Orange County home. Most people would be happy to live in this place, where the weather is great, the women are even better, and the residence means success in business, but Brumder sees Orange County as a world of stuck-up people and loons, including his own family. His mother (O'Hara) is a wino, who married a drooling geriatric after Shaun's father (Lithgow) left her for some younger girl he met at the gym (Mann). The closest thing Shaun has to a male advisor is his older brother Lance (Black), but he is so often wasted from a night (and day) of nonstop partying with pills and other varied drugs that he looks beyond the needs of his brother. Yes, Lance does love his brother, but he really cannot understand why he would ever want to aspire for college or anything other than giving Lance occasional cups of clean urine for his parole officer. Shaun is a very bright boy, especially after reading the fictitious novel Straight Jacket by Stanford professor Marcus Skinner (Kline) while mourning the death of one of his surfer friends in a freak run-in with a tsunami wave. Immediately, Shaun becomes intent on getting into the college where he can study at the feet of this life-changing writer. Shaun too wants to write for a living and has even written his own novella about living in Orange County. But that's not enough to get him into the university -- sure, his résumé and test grades are well above the level of Stanford admissions, but his bungling guidance counselor (Tomlin) sends them the wrong transcript. The rejection of Stanford is devastating and Shaun quickly goes to work with his girlfriend Ashley (Fisk) to find some way to get into the school even if the deadline has long passed. After a meeting with his family throws one chance out, an idea of Lance's causes Shaun to take a road trip to Palo Alto to talk to the dean of admissions (Ramis); Ashley and Lance come to make things even harder. There is an underlying sentimentality in Orange County that never fits the film, but the satire and darker humor that runs rampant around the two leads makes the film run tightly for its deceptively short 83 minutes. Sure, the plot with the two lovers never really comes to fruition in any matter that really suits the rest of Kasdan's film, but the over-the-top fun of Catherine O'Hara, John Lithgow, and Jack Black all make this at least marginally entertaining for most of the duration. Cameos from Jane Adams, Kevin Kline, Chevy Chase, Garry Marshall, Ben Stiller, and Mike White also liven up various scenes. Many of the actors and artists in this film have a common connection to the short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks. I never saw the show, but had always heard that it featured a stunning view of cliques and the unappreciated -- something that Orange County tries hard to do. Mike White is especially engaging in this point with his incredibly inept high school English teacher, a change of pace from the character of Buck he played in his last screenplay, Chuck & Buck. Hanks seems to be playing the awkward early years of his father's career-- much of his performance is akin to Tom's work in, say, Bachelor Party. But Hanks, like Fisk, never really shows any prowess near comparable to their parents. I mean, no one is expecting either of these youngsters to outdo Tom and Sissy, but the least I ask is that they perform at a level of someone who might actually be able to act in films for a career. People have commented that Hanks and Fisk probably got their parts because of their relations -- I would not doubt it. Jake Kasdan is another story, however. He last surprised me with the highly under-appreciated Bill Pullman/Ben Stiller vehicle Zero Effect. Now, Kasdan relates much of his story with easy visuals, but a setup that might fit that of his father. Though his reliance of new music is nothing like what we expect from Lawrence Kasdan these days, one need only think of the soundtrack to The Big Chill to veer towards retracting any criticism over this. I especially liked the way Kasdan at one point left me doubting him only to turn around and surprise me: a synchronized dance in the middle of a schoolyard seemed highly out of place at first but then worked when a payoff arrives nearly forty-five minutes later. It is rare to have movies dealing with high schoolers that
does not depend on a barrage of gross-out jokes for its humor, so Orange County
is all the more refreshing. Yeah, there are a few moments where Black veers towards a
Farrelly brothers movie, but that is inconsequential when what he's doing is twice as
funny as anything found in Saving Silverman and American Pie. |
