Marshall and the Movies

Movies that toy around with genre, tone and mood rarely sit well with me. (Uneven is my choice word for such experiences.) Occasionally, such experiments work, and I am more than happy to garner lavish praises on films that do. The vast majority, however, are just scripts with issues that needed fixing prior to cameras rolling.

Writer/director John Magary’s “The Mend,” on the other hand, is a film trying its hand in a number of different styles not to see how well they can blend. Rather, Magary attempts to see how porous the borders are between genres. He looks less for fluidity and more for malleability.

“The Mend” starts off like a literate Baumbach comedy both celebrating and mocking the New York intelligentsia. Once it seems settled, the film shifts into the character study of a slacker, Josh Lucas’ hapless Mat. This is the first movie I can think of that subverts Lucas’ good looks, not using them as an easy signifier for success or good favor. He’s all the better for it, drawing on darker parts of his persona to bring a more abrasive character to life.

Mat leeches off the success of his brother Alan (Stephen Plunkett), whose material successes continually attract the presence of his semi-estranged sibling. Tensions ratchet up slowly between the two of them, eventually reaching a boiling point in Alan’s cramped apartment. The explosion feels like something out of an Edward Albee play.

Does this mixture always work? Not necessarily. Certain sections are more compelling than others, making “The Mend” somewhat akin to that New York cabbie who alternates rapidly between the gas and the brakes. It’s a memorable ride – though definitely one that could have been a little smoother. B /