The late writer-director
James Bridges, best known for directing critically acclaimed hits including The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy and the
Academy Award winning The Paper Chase,
came into a scenario not unlike Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus with his last film Bright
Lights, Big City. Unlike his prior
films which were from the ground up the work of James Bridges and his lifelong
partner and producer Jack Larson, Bright
Lights, Big City was already in production with another cast under director
Joyce Chopra before being fired for working too slowly. There were also complaints Chopra and her
screenwriter were straying too far from James McInerney’s novel by purging many
of the darker elements of the story out.
Coming into the
long-gestating project which was in preproduction since 1984, within seven days
Bridges rewrote the script with James McInerney adapting his own novel for the
screen and recast the picture save for the two leads Michael J. Fox and Kiefer
Sutherland. Bridges also had the carte
blanche to pick two-time Academy Award winning cinematographer Gordon Willis to
lens the film, which the studio obliged.
The picture sought to challenge the clean-cut public persona of Michael
J. Fox as well as adopt what was often referred to as a ‘modern day The Lost Weekend’ to the silver screen. The
resulting film, while imperfect with some wild detours we’re not always certain
how to take, offers Fox some of the finest acting chops of his career.
Playing a twenty-something
fact-checker working for a Manhattan based magazine, Jamie Conway (Michael J.
Fox) once dreamed of being an accomplished writer married to beautiful model
Amanda (Phoebe Cates). But that was eons
ago. Now his day to day existence
consists of nightclubbing, boozing and snorting copious amounts of cocaine
while staying up all night and sauntering into work hung over and tardy. It doesn’t help that his coke buddy/party
animal Tad (Kiefer Sutherland) is there to lure him out every night away from
his responsibilities into the hedonistic pit of debauchery and substance
abuse. When we first meet Jamie, his
life is already spiraling out of control with the remainder of the picture following
his travelogue to rock bottom.
Simultaneously a character
study and an acerbic critique of the transparency of the big apple night life, Bright Lights, Big City finds a curious
tone in the soundtrack. Equal parts ‘80s
synth pop ala Prince, New Order, Depeche
Mode and M/A/R/R/S, the counterpoint
to the climactic sensory overload of the club scenes is a melancholy, bitter
and cool score by Steely Dan frontman
Donald Fagen with fellow keyboardist Rob Mounsey. Fagen, who contributed the original track Century’s End to the picture, is an undisputed
master of cynicism and in a rare bit of film composition work finds the perfect
match for his wry, sardonic outlook on life.
And the aforementioned Gordon Willis lenses the Manhattan landscape,
replete with the Twin Towers still standing which dates the film some, with
both chilly regard for the brick and mortar canyons and lush colors for the
illegal substance filled club scenes.
That Conway is difficult to
read as a character thanks to Fox’s performance (which he acts the Hell out of
by the way) actually winds up being a very realistic portrayal of a young man
whose life has been consumed by a day-to-day search for intoxication. Surrounding characters, like we, are inclined
to offer help to Conway who has long lost the capacity to care for his own
well-being. We’ve all shared the
misfortune of coming into contact with poor souls like Conway’s at one point in
our lives or another and neither we nor Conway really know what to do about
it.
Yes many are skeptical of Fox with some complaining he was miscast in such a part which had been offered
to Tom Cruise at one point who wasn’t keen on being seen doing cocaine on
film. However, that very dichotomy between
his innocent looking image and his actions behind the closed doors of bathroom
stalls only amplifies the contradictory conundrum that is Jamie Conway. While we’re given glimpses of a past full of
pain and heartache at home with growing distance between himself and his
family, brother and wife, we’re never really sure just what propelled Conway
into the void. The film could have gone
the easy didactic route of forming a moral stance on the proceedings, yet
director Bridges’ portrait remains a nonjudgmental character study of a man
lost in the hedonistic abyss of the city night life.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki