by Frank Calvillo
Is there any movie lover left today who doesn’t dismiss, or at the very least question, any film which features Madonna among its cast? Save for an exception or two, the singer/actress has been lambasted throughout the course of her movie career for poor film choices and even poorer performances. How refreshing it was then to discover her work in Abel Ferrera’s Dangerous Game, in which Madonna gave a surprisingly deep performance as a method actress in this dark look at filmmaking. Sadly, it says a lot when one of the only attributes a film has going for it is a good performance from Madonna.
In Dangerous Game, Harvey Keitel plays acclaimed New York film director Eddie Israel, who travels to Los Angeles to direct his latest feature titled “The Mother of Mirrors” starring hot-tempered actor Francis Burns (James Russo) and beautiful leading lady Sarah Jennings (Madonna) as a volatile husband and wife. As Eddie delves more and more into the making of his film, he finds his hold on his previous life slipping away as he must contend with the Francis’ uncontrollable antics and a complicated affair with Sarah.
As an erotic thriller with psychological undertones throughout, Dangerous Game, for the most part, fails. The film is simply too free and lacking in any sort of cohesive structure; all that remains for the most part are a series of strung together scenes, of which only a handful are actually interesting. An even bigger strike against the film is the fact that for all of their internal struggles, we never fully get to see inside anyone’s head and find out what they’re about. Nowhere is this more tragic and frustrating than in the character of Russo. An erratic and self-destructive actor, his scenes as himself and the character he plays in the film within the film appear to have very little difference between them, leading the audience to wonder which one is really him but lose interest when the question is never answered. It’s both a waste and a shame that a film about maddening darkness, which Dangerous Game was so hoping to be, should play out the way it does here.
While it fails to offer up anything new in terms of erotic thrills or psychological insight, Dangerous Game actually works as a peek into the often unpredictable art of filmmaking. Extended sequences with Eddie directing Sarah and Francis in the decidedly dark film are pure gold. Many a die-hard cinephile knows tales of the complicated relationships between actors and directors on film sets, but very rarely are they able to be illustrated in such a fascinating way. A scene in which Francis throws a tantrum before storming off the set and escaping back to his trailer ends with Eddie telling him to either drink and snort more or drink and snort less, but regardless, to get it together. Meanwhile, the overall emotional process coupled with the technical aspects actors must balance is also wonderfully on display, such as when Sarah gets herself into an emotional state as her character, sobbing and wailing all the while asking Eddie and the cameraman how her head should be positioned and how quickly she should raise it when the camera starts rolling.
The work the two male leads do is serviceable, if not admirable, given the fragmented script they both had to work with. Keitel nails the role of the frustrated director and Russo plays chaos and self-destruction to the hilt. The true revelation, though, is Madonna, who excels more here than she usually does on screen. Her interpretation of the classic method actress is spot on, and without question she delivers the film’s strongest scenes, mainly because this is one of the few instances where she is playing a role in which “Madonna” is not around.
Dangerous Game was Ferarra’s follow-up to the previous year’s Bad Lieutenant, a truly riveting portrait of a broken and disturbed individual, which still contains Keitel’s most stellar performance on screen. Maybe its because that film was so searing in both its characterization and atmosphere that Dangerous Game hugely pales in comparison. Ferarra may be one of the most polarizing directors of his generation, but he’s also one of the few filmmakers able to take a world and use the medium of film to truly dissect it. Its just a shame it didn’t completely work here.
The Package
The release features both the rated and unrated versions of Dangerous Game (which clock in at the same running time) as well as the film’s ominous trailer.
The Lowdown
Too alienating, even by arthouse standards, Dangerous Game is a film to see out of curiosity, but not to be remembered.
Dangerous Game is now available on Blu-Ray from Olive Films.
