tlamovies.com

Review

Director LaBute (In the Company of Men) adapts his own Broadway success and returns to the big screen with a top-notch, squirm-in-your-seat film about such light topics as the meaning of art and cruelty in relationships. The film opens on a chance meeting between a part-time museum guard, Adam (Rudd), and a dedicated art-student, Evelyn (Weisz), who vaguely defines her Master's Thesis as a "sculpture-thingy," as she is about to deface a nude museum piece that had been modified by those who were only concerned with the surface of it -- the shape of things. It is at this chance meeting that Evelyn suggests to the vulnerable Adam that he could be cute with some work, and thus their relationship is begun. True to his own previous works of art, LaBute's film is another brilliant story about the malice and utter disregard humans can have for one another where matters of the heart are concerned. The story is a compact tale of a relationship filled with issues of trust, insecurities and, of course, LeBute's trademark of betrayal. The cast is wonderful in reprising their Broadway roles on the big screen, with Weller giving a particularly convincing performance as the consummate jerk you love to hate. The film does suffer once or twice from its occasional stage-like atmosphere, which is present in some scene blocking and delivery of dialog early on. Although one can feel that it was written originally for the stage, it does translate very well to the screen and ultimately succeeds with an ending that makes the viewer want to tear out his own heart. Another victory for LeBute -- this one has both shape and substance.