Suburbicon: Best Laid Plans Of Matt and George

George Clooney, as an actor, is very likable and makes pretty good role choices. George Clooney as a director-- eh. I'll admit I haven't yet seen Good Night and Good Luck, which I've heard is stellar, but the rest of his filmography is barred in mediocrity. I really liked The Ides of March, but I think it's because of the strength of the cast and not so much the strength of the script or direction. Leatherheads is the epitome of a forgettable film (thanks a lot Renee Zellweger) and The Monuments Men, even with a brilliant cast, couldn't be saved by anything. Suburbicon falls somewhere in the middle. It helps that the script Clooney wrote with writing partner Grant Heslov was basically an update of an older script written by the Coen Bros. The Coens are still given top writing credit, but the film they wrote is much different than the one we get. There's still some Coen-isms throughout, but the final product feels much like an amateur director trying his hardest to produce something Coen-esque and falling short.

Here's the deal with Suburbicon-- it's fine. Nothing stands out as particularly wrong with the movie, but nothing really makes a huge impact in it either. So, it's fine. It's an entertaining film that serves as a distraction from everyday life. But here's the thing... I left the movie feeling super 'meh' about it. I wasn't leaning toward good or bad with my reaction, but I was stuck dab in the middle of 'meh'. And I'm not sure if I felt this way because, once again, I was seriously misled by the advertisements for the film, or because the movie was actually just very mediocre. Go watch the theatrical trailer. What you're shown is that the film is going to be very dark and quirky. Fans who purchased tickets for the film are expecting a dark-comedy/satire about 50s white people and the "accidental" violence that plagues these do-gooders. There are images of Matt Damon covered in blood and silently eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There's the shot of what looks like an explosion happening in front of Damon's face and he pedals off as fast as he can on a bike that's too small for his body. There's Julianne Moore dressed in pink housewife's attire using a rolling pin to smash down a gaggle of pills. It looks quirky as hell... but it's not. I laughed several times during the trailer. I didn't laugh once during the movie. There are a few chuckles here and there (maybe not even intentionally), but aside from the opening faux commerical for 1950s suburban living... it's a dark movie with almost no likable characters. Yes, there is a looming social commentary hovering over the film, but it is, by no means, presented in a satirical way. It's just dark and somewhat uncomfortable.

Suburbicon tells two stories. The first story is of the Lodge family. Gardner (Damon) lives in Suburbicon with his paraplegic wife Rose (Moore) and his son Nicky. Rose's twin sister Margaret (also Moore) visits them often. One night, two men invade the home, hold the family hostage, and wind up killing Rose. The other story is of the Mayers family. They're the first African-American family to move into Suburbicon-- in a house directly behind the Lodge's. There's Mr. Mayers, his wife, and his young son, Andy, who befriends Nicky very quickly. The all-white town of "pro-integrationists" are very upset by the arrival of a black family, that they wind up protesting their settlement outside the front of their house. What starts as jeers and name-calling, slowly turns into public disturbance and even the threat of violence. While the town is so focused on this family, who is kinder and gentler than ANYONE in the entire town, they're all distracted from the violence happening in the Lodge home. Finally, Oscar Isaac shows up as an insurance agent -- and that's pretty much all I can tell you about his character.

It's a nice little commentary on racism and white privilege, but it just feels... kinda... off. We don't get much of a look into the Mayers home. We get a scene or two of Mrs. Mayers getting verbally shit on by some white people and her staying tough and taking the moral high ground, but the family is used more as a prop than as real, suffering characters. They're there to play the role of "black family" to make white people racism stand out. We get a lot from young Andy and his relationship with Nicky, but not as much as I'm sure audience members would've liked. The rest of the cast is full of just unlikable people with agendas that are sinister instead of darkly humorous. The movie plays out the way someone recreating a Coen brothers movie would try to do it, but it falls short. Fargo is the perfect dark comedy/thriller. Guy has his wife kidnapped in order to get the ransom from her cheap father. He hires two loose cannons to do the job. Almost everyone ends up getting killed and the only characters who survive are the morally redemptive ones. Suburbicon attempts this formula, but without the quirkiness of the characters and the absurdity of the situations, it just doesn't really take any sort of tonally consistent shape. I will say this, though... the ending is very satisfying and both scenes with Oscar Isaac are the most entertaining in the entire movie.

I do feel bad that the film is royally flopping and Paramount is having a pretty dull year (see: Mother!), but Coen brothers movies aren't exactly huge money-makers. They rely on their indie movie style of filmmaking to take hold of a few thousand theaters and recoup their money based on positive word of mouth. Unfortunately, due to some seriously shoddy advertising and trailer building... the word of mouth isn't going to come and this movie is going to be just as forgotten as Leatherheads. It's not awful. If you wind up catching it On Demand or Netflix, you will find yourself invested, but not enough to pay it forward and recommend it to anyone else.

C