Less Than Zero | Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz

Less Than Zero | Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz | Downey's performance MAKES 'Less Than Zero' into something compelling and watchable.

DVDs:

Less Than Zero

	Less Than Zero Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz 20th Century Fox, 2002 average customer review:based on 98 reviews view larger image
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Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 06/07/2005 Rating: R

Great title, Great movie.

Less Than Zero I've heard of this movie for years & I finally got it! It's a sad & intense tale of someone who "marches to the beat of their own drum" (while strung out on drugs & alcohol) without checking his bearings or vision with others (a.k.a. self-deluded) & ultimately becomes the cause of his own demise. There are enabling individuals who help him on his way too. Strongly reminds me of the "Very Draining People" chapter in the book, "Ordering Your Private World".

Downey's performance MAKES 'Less Than Zero' into something compelling and watchable.

It is not quite the compliment it may sound to say that Robert Downey Jr. steals every scene in LESS THAN ZERO (even the ones he's not in). His co-stars in this botched film version of the infamous Bret Easton Ellis novel are Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz, both of whom so completely embody their characters' blankness that they leave two voids at the center of the story. Downey could mistakenly be judged to have walked off with the acting honors by default, the easiest victory since Theresa Russell (in a very similar role) wrested THE RAZOR'S EDGE away from Bill Murray and Catherine Hicks. This, however, would be to severely underrate Downey's careful recreation of a life out of control. An accident waiting to happen, Downey's Julian roars with the painful last gasp of a party boy for whom time is running out. Lying upside down in McCarthy's red convertible, singing screwed-up Christmas carols as they cruise L.A. after dark, Downey portrays the side of drug use that the "Just Say No" folks most dread: It's fun to be high (that is, until it's not). Despite the screenplay's watered-down insistence that Downey and McCarthy are competing for the favors of Gertz's character, Downey instead slyly plays his part like it's torn from the scorched pages of the novel, where the two boys are lovers, not just friends. It's a bold choice that brings his character to vivid life: In addition to all the other emotional ravages he evokes, he shows us with his panicky, sad eyes that he knows he's losing McCarthy to Gertz. Not that all of this aspect of his character is in the subtext; to pay his debts off to his dealer Rip (James Spader), Julian acts as a prostitute for Rip's other male clients.

In his absurdly cheerful holiday shirt, the incorrigible Julian offers us the flip side of those too-neat TV movie plots about parents practicing "tough love" on their addict children; seen here from the helplessly self-destructive kid's point of view, the familiar tale is unbearably painful to watch. But Downey's energetic charisma keeps us from looking away, even when he takes us into the horror show of what it looks like when Julian overdoses. Downey makes us care how Julian, cut off by his family and hunted by his creditors, lives before he dies.

In the film's most resonant image, the sweating, shell-shocked Julian is feeling so like a cornered animal that even the reflections off a swimming pool take on the appearance of bars that entrap him. He won't, can't, go inside to a Christmas party: "I feel like Tiny f---in' Tim," he says, so despondent that it's clear he knows no help will come, although he never stops lying outwardly. "It's not going to happen again, this; it's over," he'll tell anyone who'll listen, and Downey gives just the right hollow cadence to this automatic lie that fools no one. "I'm gonna probably go back into rehab." Downey conveys the physical hysteria of the hopeless addict with equal finesse. Long after the movie is over, one is haunted by the scene of Downey alone (his pals are doing Christmas dinner with their dysfunctional families), doing a lonely little soft-shoe routine. Simple, understated, unforgettable. It is a sublime moment.

It has been said that Downey's take on Julian was probably a case of life imitaing art. Perhaps. . . But that only makes the performance much more astonishing. Plenty of Hollywood's elite have tried their hands at the same type of role and come up wanting, even though they too were "living the role in real life." (Patty Duke in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS anyone?)

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Good for Downey jr Fans

Great movie for any fans of Downey Jr. You can see his desperation and the lost hope of his friends and family. Awesome performance.

Seems Like a Flashy Version of an Afterschool Special about Drug Abuse.

"Less Than Zero" must be in the running for the movie that least resembles its source material, in this case Bret Easton Ellis' 1985 novel of the same name. In this 1987 film, Clay (Andrew McCarthy) returns to his native Los Angeles for Christmas break his freshman year of college. He hopes to rekindle his relationship with girlfriend Blaire (Jami Gertz), who had taken up with his best friend Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.) in Clay's absence. He's disappointed to find Blaire strung out on cocaine and annoyed by her insistence that Julian is in some kind of trouble and needs his help. Julian's business failures have left him deep in debt to a drug dealer (James Spader) and wasted all the time.

There probably isn't much point in comparing "Less Than Zero", the movie, with the book. They have little more than the characters' names in common, but Ellis' novel does strike me as a strange source for an anti-drug movie. The tone of the movie is wired for the MTV generation, in contrast to the book's droning, indifferent narration and aimless characters. Nosebleed Clay has been replaced with a goody-two-shoes, in love with Blaire, concerned about doing the right thing, who won't touch cocaine! This is a conventional drama about friends trying to save one another from the abyss of drug dependency and its concomitant evils. The film is a humorless converse of the book in most respects.

Judging the movie on its own merits, I like the cast, although Andrew McCarthy is conspicuously too old to play 18. I also like the theme song, The Bangles' remake of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter", which plays in its entirety over the sequence of Clay's return to L.A. That song captures the 1980s better than the rest of the movie. The trouble is that this film is a very straightforward, one-note, anti-drug message, and that's all it is. Drugs will ruin your relationships, plunge you into the depths of despair, and probably kill you. It's surprisingly talky, and the dialogue clanks. Clay tries to save a couple of friends from their vices between semesters. Not horrible, but not noteworthy either.

The DVD (20th Century Fox 2001): There are 3 theatrical trailers, an English trailer (1min 30 sec), a Spanish version of the same trailer, and a "Hard Version" trailer in English (2 min). And there are five 30-second TV spots. Subtitles for the film are available in English and Spanish. Dubbing available in French.

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