Arts
Opening Friday at the Belcourt
Andrew Wagner, writer/director/instigator of The Talent Given Us, began the project with a script about two septuagenarian New Yorkers a lot like his own parents, Judy and Allen Wagner. So he cast his mother and father in the movie, along with his sisters Emily and Maggie Wagner, and filmed them driving across country for a surprise visit to—ta-da!—Andrew Wagner. Along the way, the family argues about Allen's infidelities and infirmities, about Judy's controlling nature, about Emily and Maggie's various neuroses and sexual hang-ups, and about why Andrew seems so emotionally distant. A lot of the stunt factor to The Talent Given Us comes from the Wagners' apparent openness. How much is drawn from their actual lives, and how much did Andrew write?
If you don't care about what's real about the Wagners, you're likely to be left cold by The Talent Given Us. Much of the film is deliberately provocative, with the Wagner children indulging in intense therapy-speak as they run down every petty gripe from childhood to the present. Maggie Wagner, an L.A.-based actress who's had a recurring role on E.R. since its debut, is especially blunt. She invites her mom to examine her underwear-clad body (in "a sex position") to see what kind of liposuction she needs, and at one point she touches herself while wondering aloud what would be the best fantasy to masturbate to. Even Judy gets into the act, begging Allen for sex when she's not worrying everyone she meets with her anxieties.
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All of this up-front soul baring feels unnatural, in large part because Wagner puts it into a wan indie-film context. The standard-issue soundtrack features randomly strummed electric guitar, with the odd bit of "isn't this fun?" roller-rink organ. And the script is full of lame jokes, like when the family arrives at a hotel that's been booked up by a "plastics convention," or when they stop off in Iowa to meet a friend who's working on Field of Dreams 2. The pop culture spoofiness derails the naturalism.
But Wagner's use of his family in all their lumpen glory makes what would've been intolerable in any other cinematic context into something almost charming. The way his father gnaws crankily on plastic tubing all day, or the way his mother can't help but crack a smile even when she's upbraiding her husband, feels much more natural than what a cast of aspiring acting pros might've done. The sense of place is strong too, from the narrow New York apartments to the Midwestern McMansions, with a few Country Kitchen restaurants and motel breakfast buffets thrown in. Almost by accident, Wagner captures the feeling of being restlessly on the move, comforted by the company you keep while simultaneously wishing you could shake them off. In the end, The Talent Given Us isn't so bad, even though nothing in it indicates that Andrew Wagner should ever make another movie.
—Noel Murray