Gray Matters About “Gray Matters”

I’ve got a couple of issues with a film I’ve just seen titled Gray Matters. Those issues are but peripherally related to the movie itself.

Few of you have seen the film. It’s playing first run at a second run house, Village 8. Which is one of the issues I want to address.

Few of you have seen the film, because it’s been pretty universally dismissed by the community of critics who have weighed in. Which is the other issue I wish to address.

As for the flick, well, it’s a somewhat entertaining screwball comedy. Gray Matters, it would seem, is an homage to those delights of the 40s, mostly, filled with dancing, rapid fire repartee and romance, but not without entanglements and impediments. Here you have Heather Graham and Thomas Cavanaugh as a brother and sister so tight that most conclude incorrectly they’re a couple.

They decide they need to branch out and find mates. In the park, they meet Bridget Moynahan. They all get along from the get go. Cavanaugh comes home the next afternoon to the apartment he shares with his sister to declare his undying love. And the declaration that Bridget and he will be getting married in Vegas that weekend. The night before the wedding, Bridget and Heather get drunk. They kiss. Not just a peck on the cheek. Bridget falls asleep. Heather falls in love.

The rest of the film revolves around Heather’s coming out. It is not great cinema. But it’s far from awful. It endeavors fitfully to emulate its heritage. It hits the mark on occasion. Molly Shannon plays Heather’s work mate. It is her best performance on the big screen yet. There are a couple of scenes with that rat tat tat dialog that really resonate. Alan Cumming plays a cabbie who, ironically, falls for Heather, becoming her confidant.

Heather and Thomas have a tiff. Heather and Thomas reach rapprochement. Heather comes out.

The film was moderately enjoyable. And I’m not just talking about Heather Graham and Bridget Moynahan playing tongue hockey.

My beef is with the community of critics who have chosen to lambaste the film. For no good reason it seems. These same folks will rhapsodize ad nauseum about some black and white screwball comedies from yesteryear, which, when broken down, are as flawed — or without flaw — as Gray Matters.

There is a duplicity afoot in the film review biz. Critics ask for new and innovative and retro and fewer explosions and more romance and comedy and respect for the history of the genre and less computer graphics. Then when a director, like Sue Kramer here, tries that, and perhaps misses the mark a bit, it’s like she’s committed a felony.

My second beef is with the folks at Apex Theaters. They run the Baxter. They also own Village 8, which generally plays second run features at a discount. Awhile back I asked why they didn’t show indie and foreign films at the smaller theaters at Village 8. I was told they couldn’t mix first run and second run.

So my question to those in charge at Apex is this: How come you’ll screen a rather badly reviewed — unjustifiably so — flick like Gray Matters at Village 8 but won’t show heralded small independent or foreign films?

‘splain that one to me, Lucy!!!!!!

2 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment