Trailer Hitch

By Eric Hughes

November 11, 2009

Look at the sexay!

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Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: A threesome takes an L.A. road trip, Colin Firth switches teams and Steve Carell emulates Dr. Evil.

Fix – Opens November 20th

If Fix really is a drama, it's certainly hidden from its trailer. The indie pic, shot over 18 days in summer 2007 in Los Angeles, concerns the efforts of two documentary filmmakers (played by Olivia Wilde and Tao Ruspoli) who race across L.A. to get Ruspoli's brother, Leo (Shawn Andrews), into drug rehab before 8 p.m. If they don't meet the deadline, Leo heads back to prison for three years.

With just a day to get Leo from Beverly Hills to Watts (and raise the necessary $5,000 for the clinic, among other pressing issues), you'd suspect the race to be on the speedy side. Sadly, this isn't the case. Instead, the three seem to loaf around, bouncing jokes off passersby and taking their good ol' time cruising around L.A. county (comparable to, say, a team on The Amazing Race who don't have an avid interest in actually winning the competition, let alone finishing).

Maybe the flick, which earned a positive review from Variety and is comparable to Arrested Development according to Indie Wire, takes itself less seriously than I'm imagining. But it's the subject matter, along with its claims of being a drama, that I find troubling. Consider me confused.

I do want to note that Fix is framed like it's a documentary, which works for a movie like this. The three are on an adventure to land one of their own in rehab, so why not document the day – if, by chance, they actually make it there? Solid decision-making on the filmmakers' part.

Grade: C+




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A Single Man – Opens December 11th

Even though dialogue is totally absent from A Single Man's trailer, the movie, based on Christopher Isherwood's novel of the same name, looks extremely solid and engaging. This is probably due to my personal struggle to piece together what the movie is really about. (Believe me, it's a tall order when you know little to nothing about the project). Only afterwards did I find out that Colin Firth's character isn't contemplating offing his wife (or something equally disturbing) for committing adultery with a younger lover. Instead, Firth's character, who is gay, lost his partner due to a sudden, unexpected death and merely tries going about a normal day in Los Angeles.

Beyond the beautiful cinematography that's on full display in the preview, the project excites me for a number of reasons. First, both Firth and Julianne Moore, who likely plays a friend of Firth's character, are receiving a lot of positive press for their respective roles. Of course, news like this is welcomed anytime, but it's greeted so warmly here due to 2009's lack of buzz-worthy performances (in my opinion). Second, A Single Man's production design comes from the same team who did Mad Men, which is fitting since both projects are set in the 1960s. Finally, the movie marks the film debut of writer-director Tom Ford, an American fashion designer who's most known for turning around Gucci as the company's creative director from 1994-2004.

Grade: A


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