Movie Review

House of D

"House of D" is about that special time in a young man's life when he goes from being an asshole to a horny asshole. It follows the coming of age story format almost to a tee, throwing in the depressed substance-abusing parent, the mentally challenged best friend, the day on the baseball field in which the home run ball goes through someone?s window. It's all basically clich? at this point, but first time writer and director David Duchovny (a.k.a. Fox Mulder) does a nice job of drawing us in. It's just too bad he completely bungles everything come the second half.

The first half does a really nice job of establishing everything. The story is done in flashback, as an artist living in France named Thomas (David Duchovny) recalls the time he went from being 12 to being a man. Anton Yelchin plays the younger Thomas, a kid who lives in Greenwich Village with his single mom (Tea Leoni) during the 1970's. He lost his dad to cancer, something that has hit his mom harder than him. She spends her days working and choking down sedatives, forcing him to monitor her pill in-take. He, on the other hand, finds a male role model in Papas (Robin Williams), a mentally challenged janitor at his catholic school who also works with him as a delivery boy.

Papas and Thomas are inseparable friends, spending much of the time they're supposed to be working goofing off and watching movies. Only Thomas is reaching that crucial age when girls are becoming more important and Papas can neither join in nor understand. As he embarks further on these unchartered waters, Thomas comes to the barred window of Lady Bernadette (Erkyah Badu), a wise prisoner locked up in the women's detention center who gives him advice on women.

Duchovny does a nice job with this material, giving us a very genuine portrayal of subjects like the innocence and immaturity of youth and first love. His movie is sweet and, at times, hilarious, especially in one scene in which a kid keeps screaming "Sabath" during his school dance. The introduction of Lady Bernadette supplies the movie with its best scenes, thanks to the weathered performance of Erkyah Badu. She gives the movie a sense of mystery, showing an intelligent and wise black woman who for some reason is locked up in this place. Anton Yelchin is also a very good young actor, though the pre-pubescent voice can get irritating at times. And Robin Williams, who I worried was declining into cheap sentimental schlock again, plays his mentally challenged janitor with a level of dignity and respect.

Where Duchovny bungles everything is in the second half, where he seems to want to flood the theater auditorium with tears. The film turns dark and tragic, as an essential character dies, one has to go away for a long time, and nothing will ever be the same again. This scenario is false, senseless, and just tremendously overdone, a horrible excuse to wrangle some tears from an audience that was expecting something so much more sincere. Tea Leoni also seems miscast, looking way too physically fit and together to play such a broken down woman.

The sad part about "House of D" is that for a while, it appeared like it was going to be the first really good movie of this year. Instead, it does what almost every other movie this year has done: build up momentum that ultimately leads to disappointment, an offense that keeps it stuck in overcrowded detention room #2005.

Craig's Grade: C

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%