SMALL APARTMENTS
US, 2012, 86 minutes, Colour.
Matt Lucas, James Caan, Juno Temple, Saffron Burrowes, Peter Stormare, Johnny Knoxville, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, DJ Qualls, Dolph Lundgren, Billy Crystal, David Koechner, Amanda Plummer, Rosie Perez, Ned Bellamy,
Directed by Jonas Akerlund.
This eccentric film is based on a novel by Chris Chillis. He has adapted the novel for the screenplay.
The setting is an apartment block in an American city. The audience is taken into various apartments but also out into the streets.
One of the most interesting aspects of the film is its very eclectic cast, and the range of well-known actors as characters or in cameos. Interestingly, also, is the fact that Matt Lucas is the central character and that he is British – although there is an international cast with Juno Temple and Saffron Burrows English, Peter Storare Swedish, Rebel Wilson Australian, Dolph Lundgren, Swedish. The film is directed by a Swedish director who has made a great number of music videos.
The author leaves it open as to whether this is realism or fantasy or both.
The film opens with the central character, Franklin (Matt Lucas) playing an enormous horn with Swiss mountains in the background. This is his fantasy. It irks his next door neighbour, Mr Allspice (James Caan). And the audience notices someone prostrate on the floor of the apartment, Mr Olivetti (Peter Stormare)
Franklin has an older brother, Bernard (James Marsden) who is an institution and sends Franklin a tape every month, advising him that God is watching. Bernard has been in the thrall of a Guru, of all people Dolph Lundgren, who has written and gives talks on mental health.
Complications come when Mr Olivetti is seen to be dead and Franklin imagines a variety of macabre ways in which to dispose of the body. Ultimately, he moves it downstairs, puts it in the boot of the car – but is attacked by two thugs who take the car and later use the gun in a hold-up in a local store, killing the attendant, played by Johnny Knoxville, whom we have seen in another of the apartments with his girlfriend played by Rebel Wilson. Across the way are two young women, Juno Temple and Saffron Burrowes, who are sexually provocative for Franklin who watches them with his binoculars.
With the discovery of the body, fire investigators are called in. They are led by Billy Crystal.
There are all kinds of theories as to what happened. However, Franklin is let go – and finds, on a visit to the institution where Rosie Pérez is the receptionist, that Bernard has left him a tape indicating that he had made a lot of money underhandedly and bequeaths it to Franklin for his new life – seen either in reality or in imagination in Switzerland.
1. The title? The novelist adapting his sardonic novel? Sardonic screenplay?
2. The vast and eclectic cast, their roles, characterisations, commuters?
3. The American city, the apartment block, exteriors, interiors? Franklin and his apartment? Mr Allspice and his apartment? Tommy Ball and his apartment? The streets, the fire chiefs, the garages, investigations? The musical score?
4. An American film – and the presence of British performers, especially Matt Lucas?
5. Reality/fantasy? Franklin and the opening, the Swiss background, the mountains, the Swiss horn? His imagining the background? Playing the horn, Mr Allspice and his objections? The end, Is Going to Switzerland, surrounded by the women – fantasy/reality? His life, awkwardness, his relationship to Bernard, Bernard in the institution, Bernard being older, the sequences at the bowling club, sending the parcel, the tapes, suggesting to Franklin that God was watching? Franklin and Mr Allspice and their arguments? His binoculars and watching Simone? Wearing only his underpants, going out with underpants and coat, his range of wigs and wearing them or not? Going to the shop, Simone getting it to open, Artie and his attention, off-hand? The visit to Bernard, the news of his death, the reaction of the woman in reception? The final tape, the explanation of Bernard stealing and the money? Bernard offering him a life?
6. Bernard and his discovery of the book about mental health, reading it, meeting the Guru, the humour of having Dolph Lundgren as the Guru? Attending the talks, confronting the Guru with questions and his being fobbed off? Told that he is mad?
7. Mr Olivetti, the landlord, lying on Franklin’s floor, dead? His imagining different ways of disposing of the body? Dragging him down the steps, putting the body in the car, Mr Allspice and his questions? To dispose of the body, the encounter with the thieves, the gun, his leaving, driving? The investigation? The flashbacks about Mr Olivetti, his lewd behaviour, the reason for Franklin’s attack, the sauce on the floor and Olivetti dying?
8. Mr Allspice, his age, widower, painting, arguing, friendship with Olivetti, the interrogation? His suicide?
9. Tommy and his apartment, his girlfriend and her slouching? As experimenting with the gravity bong? His work in the shop, pleasant? His mother arriving, reprimanding him, wanting him to go to church? The robbery in the store, his being shot? Simone and her being sad?
10. Simone, the dancing, sex and taunting Franklin with his binoculars?
11. Burt Walnut, his staff, fire investigations? His loneliness? The visit of the assistant and his variety of theories? The pubic hair? Getting more information, the robbers from the convenience store, the gun, the arrest? His letting Franklin go?
12. The end, themes of fate, death and life, survival?
