Sally Potter is a director who consistently tries to break down barriers (Orlando, The Tango Lesson) but she may have gone a step too far for her loyal audiences with this murder mystery set within the New York fashion scene.
It shows neither the city nor its glitzy catwalks. The mystery is played out by a group of actors, some stars — such as Jude Law, Judi Dench and Steve Buscemi — some unknowns, in one unfurnished room where the plain background changes colour as we watch. Each actor does a series of brief solo cameos to the camera, which is operated by a young boy intent on dissecting the case for a school project.
The murdered woman is a troublesome catwalk diva whose death has caused a huge scandal, and Potter’s screenplay attempts to unwind the mystery as the evidence mounts so that we have a pretty good idea of whodunnit before the end. And it is clearly about the dehumanising effect of the pursuit of celebrity and power.
She calls the film an example of poor cinema, appropriate for lean times. It is certainly a brave effort, done on a minuscule budget with its well-known players taking far less than their usual salaries. But it is a hard, though sometimes amusing, watch at around 100 minutes and doesn’t always deliver as intended.
Even so, the playing is fine with Dianne Wiest, as the fashion house manageress, David Oyelowo, as a Shakespeare‑quoting New York detective, and Buscemi, as a cynical photographer, particularly good.
Rage
