11/22/06 Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise

Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise (2001), directed by Danny Boyle

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD rental (Netflix) @ car ride (from Christiana, MD to Buena, NJ)

So, the trip begins to the great Northeast for our holiday vacation. I decided to pack along some shorter length films (for time constraints), and some interesting filmmakers' work (considering I wanted to include some more important directors on the year's Challenge). Both of those categories applied to today's selection, considering my selection was hindered by the ungodly amount of vehicular traffic that plagued the highways (I-95 is the devil). Since my leg of driving took a bit longer than originally intended (we just got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end), we decided to watch a majority of it on the passenger's lap (Leslie) and my focus had to come in spurts as I would tap the gas pedal and then the brake incessantly. That all being said, I probably wasn't in the happiest of moods in commentary on said film...but all in all the quality of the picture left me disappointed. Boyle is a very talented and spastic director (the man behind the utterly raw & brilliant "Trainspotting," "Shallow Grave," "Millions," "The Beach," and "28 Days Later..."), but this one was an original British made-for-TV film that crammed the same chaotic cuts and spasms to barely 76 minutes (just made the cut, I checked). The plot was completely ludicrous, and disturbingly realistic in its filthy frankness. Pete is an aspiring club DJ who tries to make ends meet, and please his demanding stripper girlfriend, takes a job as a vacuum salesman who falls into a world of shady business practice and spiralling mental states. Pete is mentored by the appallingly crude Tommy (Timothy Spall), who will try any seedy tactics to make the sale and lie his way through life. All the immorality, sexual frustration, and bad hygiene lead Pete into a frenetic uneasiness...all to the edge of his own sanity. Tommy tries desperately to keep him under his wing, if only to further his own personal gain, to help win the coveted "Golden Hoover" award for best vacuum salesman of the year. All the twisted events finally culminate in a tragic banquet hall where Tommy becomes the one who loses his grip on sanity when his world begins to crumble before everyone's eyes. The movie starts off with much promise for dark comedy and bizarre camera-work, but in the end becomes a crass imitation of its own over-the-top bravado. There are still some classic scenes...my favorite being when Pete enters the old eccentric ladies apartment to find mountains (literally) of old newspaper collections, setting the room ablaze accidentally, trying to rescue the (unknowingly) dead woman, and having Tommy find him in his underwear...frantic, incoherent and with headlines of major world news pasted to his sweaty body parts. Yeah, you'd have to see it to understand it. That, and the title alone almost warranted another star...but alas, no "Golden Hoover" today.

2 out of 5 stars