Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Butterfly Kiss

This bleak road film is directed by Michael Winterbottom.

In England, Eunice (Amanda Plummer) wanders the highways looking for "Judith" and happens upon gas station clerk Miriam (Saskia Reeves) instead. Although Eunice acts openly unbalanced, Miriam for some reason is taken with her personality.

The film is told in flashback as Miriam is relating things in some sort of interview. Eunice overtakes Miriam's life, but after the initial shock of Eunice revealing her murderous nature, Miriam wants to follow. The two are reminiscent of other volatile couples, Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Lousie, Aileen Wornos and Selby, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. It is apparent that one is the leader and one is the sheep.


Both are unbalanced in their own way, at opposite sides of the seesaw. Eunice is tattoed and wears chains under her clothes, ever searching for Judith, who may or may not be a real person. Miriam is meek and and a little intellectually slow, and seems to welcome Eunice's lesbian attentions, despite being a victim herself.

Tellingly, Miriam relates that her mother used to call her "Mimi" or "Mi" and she herself calls Eunice "Eu" throughout the film.

If you know anything of the roles Amanda Plummer has taken, this one is no different. She seems the perfect actress for the role. Otherwise it would have to be someone I know nothing about in order to forget the line that separates actress and role.

The film is oddly scored with love and pop songs, I guess it is sort of the women's search for love. The interviews that Miriam gives didn't work for me. They reveal that Miriam is still standing at the end of these events (and you know this can't end prettily). Also the bits disrupt the flow of scenes and the film could have found a way to have Miriam give these insights during the events as they happened.

Neither character's pasts are delved into very much, especially that of Eunice which would have made her a more sympathetic character; there are glimmers though of shame and remorse and the seeking of redemption. Miriam ultimately becomes a tool in Eunice's hands, rather than a person she really, really cares for.

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