Conference bookie::movies

386.0. "Sweetie" by DSSDEV::RUST () Wed Nov 24 1993 18:43

    "Sweetie" is an extremely grim little slice-of-life, directed by Jane
    Campion ("The Piano"). And since in this upcoming holiday season, we're
    all being urged to think warm, hearth-ful thoughts of home and family,
    I figured something like this would be just the thing to counteract
    that feeling of having overdosed on "It's a Wonderful Life".
    
    The film took a little while to grab me. It starts slowly, depicting
    (in what felt like low-quality cinema verit� style) a schoolgirl's
    attempt to steal another girl's boyfriend because a tea-leaf reader
    told her he was her destined lover. There's some scrambling around on
    the floor of a parking garage, and lo! they're a couple, setting up
    housekeeping in a tacky little subdivision someplace.
    
    But all is not well. Into the happy home bursts, without warning, the
    Little Sister From Hell. Sweetie is a woman grown, but is also a
    quintessential spoiled brat, and has a generous assortment of emotional
    and/or psychological problems to boot. She proceeds to move in "just
    for a little while," and kicks off a series of increasingly ugly
    confrontations. 
    
    I found the whole thing terrifying. I haven't wanted to murder a
    character so badly in ages. The family's ineffectual attempts to deal
    with her were wrenching *and* angering; sometimes I'd get caught up in
    their actions (such as the infamous "going for a ride in the car"
    sequence), only to step out of the story for a minute and realize what
    an appalling thing they - and, vicariously, I - were doing.
    
    And it was all so very calm and orderly on the surface, the sort of
    thing that might happen in any neighborhood and might get very bad
    indeed before anybody really noticed...
    
    Not - I say, *not* - a feel-good movie, but definitely one that'll make
    you _feel_.
    
    -b

    I rented this last year and found it horrendously depressing.  I guess
    it was well done, as far as that goes, but I found Sweetie herself to
    be one of the most revolting characters I've ever seen in film.  It
    really left me with a bad feeling.  As I was rewinding the tape I was
    thinking, "Why did I ever watch this?"
    
    Lorna
    

    
    Emotionally gut-wrenching sort of sums up my feelings about this
    movie.  The word repellent also comes to mind.
    
    A friend talked me into going to see this a few years ago.
             
    She still owes me.  ;-)

I found that 'Sweetie' was compelling and awful at the same time the way 
that accident scenes can be. One feels compelled to look and is horrified
at the same time. 

The way in which Sweetie can be 'near-normal' at times and her sister (and 
rest of the family for that matter) be 'near-crazy' at times creates a 
dysfunctional situation that has a sense of inevitable tragedy.

Sweetie really brings into consideration how far responsibility to ones family 
extends.


For it's feel-bad factor, I'd compare this film with 'The Bad Lieutenant' 

Unlike Keitel's totally unredeemable Lieutenant whose actions are far 
beyond morally acceptable, Sweetie is only somewhat over the borderline of
moral acceptability which makes her far more sinister. I shudder at a
slightly mentally deficient, sly and totally self-indulgent woman creating
havok in her family insidiously and irreparably. The careening psychopath
in the Bad Lieutenant is totally obvious and not sinister in the same
manner. It would just be very bad luck to have him cross your path, like
getting a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting would be terribly bad luck,
but not as seemingly inevitable as a slightly deranged family member.

I felt like I needed a shower after both films. 

Cheers,
George