Bad Behaviour Review Jennifer Connelly Full Of Spit And Vinegar In Family Rage Drama
Like the little girl with the curls in the famous nursery rhyme: if this movie is good, it's very good. But when it's bad, it's...well, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's original poem says "awful," but "Bad Behavior" is more of a shameful, self-deprecating poem. But the good far outweighs the ugh, and this is the debut feature from writer, director and co-writer Alice Engler, who should be applauded for taking interesting, if not always successful, risks.
At least Englert made a safe bet by casting Jennifer Connelly in the title role, one of her best performances in years. Here she plays Lucy, who, like Connelly herself, was once a child star but is now filled with anger and bitterness towards her parents, her (never seen) ex-husband and even working daughter Dylan (Englert) as an assistant . . I'm standing in New Zealand when the story begins. Lucy calls Dylan from Oregon, where she's going on a retreat, and says she'll be out of touch for a while, but Dylan gets distracted and the line goes dead.
On the plain built by guru Elon Bello (Ben Whishaw), Lucy struggles to sleep and experiences a deep, lasting, and possibly justifiable, love affair with narcissistic model Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova). The dialogue, written by Engler or produced by the actors, deftly veers into pseudo-mystical psychedelic imagery, but then veers uncomfortably as the drama begins to reveal Lucy's true pain, which then leads to a suitably shocking act of violence.
If the film had captured the retreat entirely and stopped at the moment of violence, it would have been an elegantly structured short film. However, Englert keeps returning to Dylan while working on a failed film in which she has an affair with the actor and gets injured on the job. (The animated doctor treating her in just one frame is Engler's real mother, directed by Jane Campion.) Dylan returns to the United States to support Lucy, and the two fight and shoot each other in a very believable Mother; daughter's story. fashion before making an unnecessary epiphanic conclusion. The back half is scattered all over the place and doesn't seem to know what to say, but Connelly is always mesmerizing as an old woman full of spit, vinegar and garbage who could explode at any moment.
