# Mr. Jealousy (1997)

### reviewed by
Luke Buckmaster

    REVIEW: Mr. Jealousy
    By Luke Buckmaster (bucky@alphalink.com.au)

Cast: Eric Stoltz, Annabella Sciorra, Christopher Eigeman, Carlos Jacott, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Brian Kerwin, Peter Bogdanovich, Bridget Fonda Director: Noah Baumbach Screenplay: Noah Baumbach

Australian theatrical release date: December 3, 1998 (Adelaide and Brisbane later)

On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 stars

If it is feasible for a writer to develop characters of both sexes equally - that is, understand the minds of males and females and convey that understanding competently - it would be reasonable to say that Noah Baumbach has achieved this feat. In Mr. Jealousy, he displays a talent for working on the fundamental needs of character development; that is, giving the audience an instant relation to them. Baumbach is not concerned with whether his characters are male or female, good looking or not - as long as they have a mouth and two ears, they are good enough. If he had chosen a vehicle that could have showcased these qualities with more pizzazz, more depth and more confrontation, he may have created a film which could have competed with its characters.

That's not to say that they are a particularly fascinating bunch. They are realistic, however, and that's always enough on which to build. Baumbach has a gutsy attempt at doing so, but in the end the relationship between the two protagonists is unrewarding, and a little tedious. His symbolism of relationships and emotions is ludicrously simplistic, even down to the name of the film (instead of portraying jealousy through character development, it's right there in the title). This is not to say that Mr. Jealousy does not have its moments - some are daunting, others make for pleasant viewing - but neither of these elements are substantial enough to keep it on a continuous high.

Lester (Eric Stoltz) has a big problem with dating: he gets jealous. Very jealous. Ever since his first girlfriend - who he later spots making out with an older man - Lester has taken his jealousy to a level just below obsession. He trails previous boyfriends like a bemused private eye, keeping the exact count on how many there have been and what their names are. Perhaps it's a good thing, then, when he admits himself to a therapy group. But of course Lester is only doing this so he can gain a greater insight into best-selling author Dashiell Frank (Chris Eigeman), an ex-boyfriend of Lester's current woman, the wild-spirited Ramona Ray (Annabella Sciorra, of What Dreams May Come).

When Ramona begins to make sense of Lester's lies, whilst Lester develops an awkward and dishonest friendship with Dashiel, everything builds up to a sensational climax. Mr. Jealousy works best when Baumbach positions his characters in the weekly therapy sessions, as their spoken words reflect on the uniqueness of their personalities. But Baumback refuses to let viewers ever feel wholly uncomfortable, so the potentially confronting climax is filtered into sentimentality and uses a cheap way of expressing the tension between two characters. After skillfully crafting dramatic scenes of therapy, all Baumbach can do is initiate a lame-brained fistfight.

Although with respectable performances all round, an underdeveloped screenplay hinders Baumbach's direction. This leaves him in an awkward predicament: Mr. Jealousy is not funny enough to be a comedy, not dramatic enough to be a drama, and not romantic enough to be a story of romance. Perhaps it's a comedy/drama/romance; but the jokes weren't particularly memorable, the drama was watered down and the romance was not invigorating. The film's characters, however, save it from being a disaster.

Review © copyright Luke Buckmaster

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