Laurel Canyon, the street that runs through the Hollywood Hills, home to many a neo-Bohemian, lends its name to a new film from writer/director Lisa Cholodenko. Among the residents of Laurel Canyon are Jane (Frances McDormand), an aging but sexually driven record producer, and Ian (Alessandro Nivola), her much younger, very smitten British rock star boyfriend.
Jane's Harvard Medical School son, Sam (Christian Bale) and his seemingly innocent fianc?© Alex (Kate Beckinsale) leave good o'l Massachusetts to spend a little time out west. Sam plans to intern at the psych ward of a Los Angeles hospital while Alex will work on her dissertation. They stay at Jane's house, thinking she'll be out of town. But it wouldn't be terribly exciting for the audience if Jane weren't there to disrupt the lives of this incredibly studious, hard-working couple with her wild parties and sexual debauchery. Turns out Jane did not leave town, and is instead cutting a new hit single for her boyfriend's oh-so-trendy band. During their stay, Sam begins to take interest in a colleague (Natascha McElhone) while Alex takes a liking to Jane and Ian's exciting lifestyle.
Surprisingly, there is little driving this plot. The film can drag at times and I found myself almost perpetually anticipating excitement. Fortunately, there are a small number of scandalous scenes with plenty of excitement. Other than that, though, we only get a short glimpse into the lives of these individuals (the term "slice of life" comes to mind) and there is the audience can do with what they are given. There is no direction. The film does not dedicate enough time to developing the relationships between the characters, so we find ourselves unable to connect with them. Seeing as the plot is lacking, there is potential to make this film a character piece by making the relationships important and the characters interesting. This doesn't happen, and we are left with nothing more than a potential for both plot and character.
This film is saved by some outstanding performances, namely McDormand's and Nivola's. McDormand, Academy Award winner for her role in Fargo (1996), breaths life into the eccentric Jane. She and Nivola work well off one another, and they shine. When set against unimpressive performances by Bale and Beckinsale, they really shine. The mastery of the American accent is just about the only impressive thing about British actors Bale and Beckinsale. Their mediocre performances in this movie are disappointing, as both young actors have given notable ones in the past. Also, they fail to connect as characters. Much of the film's drive must come from the relationship between Sam and Alex, but Bale and Beckinsale fall short of forming an effective on-screen relationship. McElhone, who plays Sam's adulterous foreign colleague, gives a very dull, almost superfluous, performance.
Apart from the unfulfilling plot, underdeveloped characters and ambiguous conclusion, Laurel Canyon does provide something: I left the theater thinking, which is always a good sign. I was thinking about what it is exactly that Cholodenko wants us to get from this movie. What is the point? Does she want us to realize the vulnerability of our relationships with significant others? Does she want to show us that straying too far from the path is not always a good idea?
There are a number of different ways to interpret this movie and each viewer has the opportunity to find a different meaning in it. Cholodenko does not spell everything out for us, which is refreshing. I would say this is a movie worth seeing, if only for the eye candy (Beckinsale or Bale, depending on your flavor), but don't waste the money on theater prices, wait till rentals.
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