tlcarpenter's review: Official thread

Why don't you watch the film and review it for yourself you ignorant idiot. Ofcourse... That means that you may actually have to USE some of your decaying brain cells.

Good luck with that Negro!

Well I can't possibly refuse such a generous request from Mr. Bell, especially since he named the thread after me.

First, I want to say to all the flamers (tr smoochie - I know you're listening) that I waited for two years for this film, I have kept an open mind, I paid for my dvd gladly and was hoping for the best. WHY? Well, if you don't know already,
I am a complete Fayehead and am always happy to see her in anything and everything.

This review is for those who aren't going to get the dvd so:

______________________MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD____________________________________

Here's the rub: parts of Dr. Fugazzi are good enough that the other parts make you disappointed the rest of the film isn't on the same level. BUT kudos to Kingsley for being a first time writer/director/actor and getting Faye Dunaway in your first film. Who else has those bragging rights?

The script shares the same concept as the John Cusack film IDENTITY, and to some extent the novel I AM THE CHEESE by Robert Cormier - one of my favorites from my teen years. In that book a boy rides his bicycle on a long adventure meeting interesting characters along the way. The end reveals he is institutionalized and has been traveling around the grounds of the hospital - the characters he meets are really just the other patients.

So in a nutshell, Anna Fugazzi thinks she's a doctor but is really a patient in a mental hospital. Detective Rowland is really her doctor. Now all of this was rather evident in the trailer that's been around for two years because there's Faye dressed in a fedora and trenchcoat as the Detective but there's also Faye dressed like a doctor in a all white limbo setting holding a clipboard. But even though I had figured out the twist I knew I could still enjoy the film if it was done well.

If Kingsley wasn't a first time director,writer,actress with limited funds this concept and story could have been really cool. But her blessings (the drive and ambition to make the project) are also the curse (no money - unexperienced actor/director). It's not that the other actors beside Dunaway are bad, they just have completely different styles of acting that don't necessarily mesh in the same scene. The charater Leonard is all tics, and manic energy that would be effective if everyone else in the scene was acting in the same style. Sometimes it felt like everyone's part had been shot separately and spliced together. So the actors couldn't modulate their performances to match each other. But you can't fault October if that's what happened, you can only do what you got the resources to do.

What about Faye? This is what shocked me - she's really effective, way better than you expect from what has come before. Her first appearance isn't until 51 minutes in - but the scene is 8 minutes long, mostly in two shot with Kingsley, and is startling good. In fact October has a mini monologue with Faye and for the first time in the film Kingsley becomes nuanced, vulnerable and believable. Also kudos to the director of photography because Faye looks AWESOME in this film. They lit her magnificently. So thank you for that October. The only flaw in the scene is a bad audio jump cut that momentarily jars the viewer right at the end of Kingsley's effective monologue to Dunaway.

Faye's first scene is the only scene where she is Dectective Rowland, when she shows up next she's the doctor explaining to Anna Fugazzi that she's been in the hospital for ten years. Now here's the twist I didn't see coming. I thought all of Fugazzi's patients were other inmates of the asylum, but they're really parts of her own personality. That was cool. The other people in Anna's "life" - her lover and friends - are the hospital staff. That was cool.

Faye's scenes in the "all white limbo" setting are rather comical and once again she gives a really good, light comedic performance. Her best scenes are in this setting with the film's entire cast running around her being either inmates or staff. That was fun.

Unfortunately, the ending (the last 5 to 8 minutes) seemed tacked on - and there's no Faye. Oh and the sex scenes that are seemingly being used to sell the dvd are pointless, not really shocking, and have nothing to do with the rest of the film. At one point, Anna and her friends (all of this in her mind of course) finish having dinner and someone says, "Okay, lets have an orgy". Cut to Anna kneeling on a bed with men and women on either side of her kissing her outstrethed arms. I laughed out loud.

So, yes the film is highly flawed, and at long stretches seems like a film school project - but the Faye scenes are worth it - and it's never boring.

FINAL VERDICT: As a Faye fan, I'm not disappionted. The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi is something I will pop in to watch her scenes, show the entire film to friends for a hoot, and forever marvel at it's bizarreness.