Mike Nichols' Film "Closer"

Honesty's Triumph

Reviewer: John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews

My generation believed that honesty would create happiness and fulfillment. This movie argues that it's ever so much better to lie. If we seek authenticity in our relationships, where does that inevitably get us??

A step further: pursuit of honesty will destroy the fragile balance created by love. And yet "true love" cannot exist in a framework of deception.

The scenarios in this movie are such that the only possible payoff for honesty is destruction. If we care about people, we'll lie to them to make them feel better and never ask for complete honesty, because it's too cruel. Mike Nichols has loved these thematics for a long time - take a look at "Carnal Knowledge," among other films of his, for some clues. He must have loved it when he first read this play.

If, when we fall in love, we fall in love with our own reflection, we fall in love with a lie. Like the poem, "I love you not for who you are, but for who I am when I am with you."

Romance.

It's hard to watch this movie, indeed. That would be endurable, though, if there was something to learn. So, I guess by its effective absence, the learning is this:

Love someone, and don't ask questions. Give of yourself freely and expect nothing back. If they feel a compelling need to confess something, listen with an attitude of complete, unconditional forgiveness. And, for God's sake, forgive.

If you forget these things, watch this movie again and repeat as necessary.

Masochistic Pursuit of Wealth and Status

Review of Daphne duMaurier's "Rebecca"

John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews

Made you look with that title, eh?

Well, think about it: "the second Mrs. DeWinter" in "Rebecca" is never even identified by name in this book. She sucks up all the abuse heaped on her by a servant, no less, because she wants to please everyone so much.

du Maurier was trying to tell us something in this great book: our own initiative, curiosity and self-worth matter so much more than what sort of birth status we have, or what we marry. In fact, you could argue that by destroying Manderley at the end, du Maurier was making the strongest possible declaration against the so-called privileges of aristocracy. Such privilege breeds evil and madness.

And Mrs. DeW2 only learns that toward the end - and, of course, each of us is Mrs. DeW2.

Are The Hardy Boys All That Hardy?

The Choice of Fenton, February 4, 2006

Reviewer:
John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews

In the 1920s, the first book in a series of preteen readers was published. It depicted the adventures of two teenage brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, as they solved mysteries in Bay City.

Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name of the actual author of not only the Hardy Boys series, but also the Nancy Drew mysteries. Since the same person wrote both, here are some puzzling questions to resolve:

1. There are two Hardy boys but only one Drew girl. Why?
2. Fenton Hardy is the Hardy boys' father. Why did F.W.Dixon choose the name Fenton? Is it only a coincidence that Fenton happens to be the name of a suburb of St. Louis, which could be the actual home of "F.W.Dixon's" parents? Makes you wonder...
3. Their friend Chet always has a yellow car. Nero Wolfe loved the color yellow, and always wore yellow shirts. It's most intriguiing that Chet was also written as an overweight character. Could it be that Chet is actually Nero Wolfe's illegitimate son, and hides his genetic genius by secretly counseling the Hardy boys and then insisting that his role be omitted from the books?
4. The final point is most telling: the male detectives are "Hardy," while the female detective is "Drew." "Drew" is, of course, a nickname for Andrew and is also the past tense of the verb "draw." So, males are "Hardy" while the female detective is "drawn," a synonym for pale and unhealthy.

I could go on, but by now you no doubt would rather I did not.