Copyright 1997-2007 Omniture, Inc. More info available at R.C.
(Lynn Collins), Agnes White (Ashley Judd) and Peter Evans (Michael Shannon) star in lsquo;Bug. rsquo;
ldquo;Bug rdquo; is a different kind of woman-in-peril movie starring Ashley Judd, which has long been its own specific genre.
Judd is indeed in peril here once again, following ldquo;Kiss the Girls rdquo; and ldquo;Twisted rdquo; and the like, but she gets to prove she actually can act with some depth and not just look pretty under strain.
Whatever unexpected ability she shows in the early scenes of this paranoid thriller go utterly to waste, however, as the film spirals ridiculously out of control by the end.
The film comes from veteran William Friedkin ( ldquo;The Exorcist, rdquo; ldquo;The French Connection rdquo;), a director who has seen better days, decades ago. Friedkin still maintains a mastery of suspense for the first half or so mdash; though he does rely a bit too heavily on that ldquo;Apocalypse Now rdquo;-style, ceiling-fan-as-helicopter effect mdash; and ldquo;Bug rdquo; can be intriguing as a character study of two damaged people who find a whole new way to damage each other further.
Until it just becomes silly, that is.
Judd stars as Agnes, a lonely waitress at a run-down bar who lives in an even rattier motel, subsisting on a diet of cigarettes, vodka and pot. It appears Judd borrowed her wardrobe of cut-off denim shorts and trashy tank tops from her recent small, Southern drama, ldquo;Come Early Morning.
rdquo; Both films allowed the usually beautiful actress to slum it aesthetically for her art.
Agnes rsquo; only friend is fellow waitress R.C.
(Lynn Collins), who is pretty and gay and who flirts with her and makes her feel loved, or at least vaguely wanted. Sporadically, Agnes rsquo; brutish ex-husband (Harry Connick Jr. as a believable bad guy) breezes in and abuses her physically and mentally.
Something horrific happened that tore them apart, which we learn about later.
But her pathetic life gets shaken up by a quiet drifter named Peter (Michael Shannon, whose presence and delivery are riveting), who hangs out at the bar one night and quickly moves in with her. He rsquo;s decent to her, which most people aren rsquo;t; she listens to him, which most people don rsquo;t.
Their shared neediness is palpable. Their big love scene, however, is laughable mdash; overly artsy and pretentious, with extreme close-ups of Judd rsquo;s breasts, which may sound hot but, in truth, it rsquo;s distracting.
Once Agnes and Peter fall for each other, it doesn rsquo;t take long for him to suck her into his delusional conspiracy theories involving the military, scientific testing, chemical technology and .
.. bugs!
Hence the title.
The former soldier says he rsquo;s the victim of an experiment in which insects have been inserted into his body as transmitters, and now he rsquo;s on the run from the government. Or something.
Or as he puts it when he spots one of the insects crawling on the bed, ldquo;It rsquo;s a bloodsucking aphid, and we rsquo;re infested. rdquo;
The movie is based on the play by Tracy Letts (who also wrote the script), and it feels like it. Much of the action takes place in Agnes rsquo; room, which slowly evolves mdash; or rather, devolves mdash; as the couple rsquo;s fear and codependency grow.
Maybe the conceit works better on stage; on screen, it results in a feeling of redundancy. (Shannon appeared in the play as well.)
If the idea of the bugs had remained as a metaphor, one that rsquo;s open for interpretation, we would have been fine.
Agnes says to Peter at one point, ldquo;I rsquo;d rather talk with you about bugs than about nothing with nobody, rdquo; and the moment seems real. You know what she means.
But then a doctor (Brian F.
O rsquo;Byrne) shows up at the door, along with a mysterious pizza that no one ordered. Eventually the room is covered in aluminum foil and insect-zapping strips, and any subtlety of emotion or meaning that existed earlier has been zapped, too.
Make that obliterated: ldquo;Bug rdquo; ends shrilly, overzealously, explosively.
Literally. It rsquo;s sound and fury signifying nothing, though it was probably intended to be profound.
Starring: Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick Jr.
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