Chasing Amy

With Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee
Written and Directed by Kevin Smith (Miramax)
By Liz Starbuck

Writer/director Kevin Smith knows a thing or two the big guys in Hollywood don’t, like, for instance, how to talk to people under 35 for whom Julia Roberts is not the pinnacle of sexual desirability. But he’s also got a thing or two to learn, or maybe unlearn.

Can we have a round of applause, or at least raise our Rolling Rocks to Clerks? Okay, fine, we loved it, ’nuff said. Mallrats was entertaining too, a bit over the top, but Smith’s peculiar sense of humor generally works, so perhaps he can be forgiven for those scenes that make us cringe.

But I’m still cringing over Chasing Amy, the third installment in Smith’s “New Jersey Trilogy.” Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed for him. Like the other two films, the acting in the opening scenes is a bit stilted (although since this is uniform throughout the cast ya kinda have to chalk it up to Smith’s spotty directing), but once you get used to the style, it’s easy enough to go along with. Each scene is funny and innovative, and tackles an interesting subject. But overall, it’s the same old shit. Maybe not the same old Hollywood shit, but the message is just lame, uninformed guy stuff.

Here’s the premise: comic book creator Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) falls in love with comic book creator Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). The problem? Alyssa’s a lesbian. She just wants to be his friend. She invites Holden out to a NY lesbian club and subsequently they begin to pal around. Alyssa charmingly and enthusiastically tries to enlighten naive Holden about the customs of lesbianism (including a demonstration – hands only! – of fisting which, to her amusement, horrifies him). Their big dramatic scene takes place in a car: Holden confesses his love, painfully putting his foot further and further down his throat; each time he pauses to let her talk, she’s silent and he just keeps babbling. When she finally speaks up, Alyssa lets loose a tirade about how selfish his confession is, how the transgression he desires would cause her to be ostracized by the community in which she is adored… It’s a funny, painful scene, and a poignant switch, pointing out one of many similarities between the gay and straight communities that go largely ignored in public discussions of sexual politics. When Alyssa gets out of the car and starts to hitchhike home in the rain, my response (I can’t tell you if this was universal) was “YOU GO, GIRL!” and I wondered with great interest how the rest of the movie would unfold. Too bad. That scene marked the death of the interesting premise. In seconds, Alyssa comes flying back into his arms. Damn.

Why is this so difficult to take?

1) Holden is a dishrag. He’s attractive, considerate, he adores her, he’s not sophisticated, but he makes an effort to learn; in short, he’s just the kind of guy all women SAY they want, but really don’t. He tries to be politically sensitive about her lesbianism, for example, trying to rein in the oafish comments of his partner and friend Banky (Jason Lee, whose character in Mallrats was similar), a lovable asshole who’ll say anything, regardless of how offensive. But next to his friend, Holden comes across as a limp washout; I would rather have seen Alyssa get together with Banky – at least he’s honest and says what he means. It would have been more believable too; why would Alyssa, who seems happy in her lesbian world, give up everything for a guy who’s just another nondescript suburban boy? Because he’s cute? Unh-unh – this gal could have had anybody.

2) In spite of many overt references to the misconception that lesbians are women who just couldn’t get a good guy (“She just needs a good dicking,” is the phrase they use, I believe), that IS the message the movie sends. Fuck that.

3) Alyssa’s soliloquy about why she feels secure in choosing Holden doesn’t ring true. She says she’d been a lesbian because she didn’t want her search for the perfect person to be limited to half the population. If she wanted to consider all the possibilities, why did she only date women? (It later turns out that she didn’t only have sex with women, and this too takes the steam out of her touching, heartfelt monologue.) But beyond that, this stupid line just feeds the ridiculous notion that homosexuality is a choice. Sure, there are political lesbians and bisexuals, and, sure, you can deny your sexuality to avoid social pressures, but people who are secure with their sexuality, as Alyssa appears to be, make their choices based on their sexual desires, not on social politics.

4) It’s nice to see screen lesbians who are not depicted as ugly, hulking bruisers, on the other hand, everyone in Alyssa’s circle of friends and at the club is a lipstick lesbian; there’s not a butch woman in sight. Didn’t wanna alienate the homophobic crowd, eh?

Chasing Amy isn’t awful; it’s fun, and Joey Lauren Adams is a charmer. The inane message is slightly mitigated by the fact that everything doesn’t fall into place in the end, although you get the feeling that this is more a matter of two ships passing in the night than that there is an inherent problem with the two characters getting together. I’d give Kevin Smith another chance: he has a great sense of the absurd, and if he tackles subjects he understands, I bet he could make another great film. In the meantime, rent Clerks.