Lovely By Surprise – Movie Review

Written on June 29, 2009 by Marc Eastman in Movies

There are those who would argue that the general category of fantasy/sci-fi, or even more generally “that which cannot really happen,” is indeed the best and purest category of fiction there is. Sure, it has everything from meaningless fluff to masterpieces just like every category, but when it’s done right, it somehow has more to say about reality than reality as a framework can manage. Whether telling a joke, using a hypothetical, or having your characters interact with mind-reading aliens, those who know how to play the game tell the truth better by lying than the truth, on its own, can be told.

Whatever you may think of such a theory, it is a theory that Lovely by Surprise not only understands, but masters utterly. The story of a woman’s struggle to finish a novel, Lovely by Surprise spins the surreal to dizzying new heights in its effort to relate, not merely its characters and their view, but the human condition in general. It succeeds in a way that few films in history can match.

Marian (Carrie Preston – recently of True Blood) has come to a deadlock in her novel, and seeks the aid of her one-time professor/mentor/person she had an affair with, Jackson (veteran character actor Austin Pendleton). It seems that mousy Marian is writing a truly bizarre novel which follows the unique existence of two men who live on a houseboat sitting in the middle of a barren field. These two exist as never-developed children with virtually no contact with the outside world, sustaining themselves on deliveries of milk and cereal. Add to that strange enough scene the fact that the main character, Humkin, knows he’s a character in a book.

As Marian battles her writer’s block, we move back and forth to the story of failing car salesman Bob. Bob, played to perfection by Reg Rogers, recently lost his wife, and can’t quite muster up the spirit to convince people to buy a car. In fact, his disconnected dolefulness largely finds him talking people out of buying.

Unfortunately, Bob can’t completely check out, because he has six year-old daughter Mimi at home. Mimi, perhaps feeding off of her father’s reaction, has withdrawn since mom’s death and has stopped speaking.

Back in our other world, mentor Jackson, unsure how to approach advising Marian with her bizarre novel, tells her to kill off protagonist Humkin. After struggling mightily with the idea (and a failed first attempt), Marian succumbs to the literary theory suggestion and destroys the character she so loves, who knows she’s doing it by the way. She instantly regrets her decision.

Then things get a little weird.

Watching Lovely by Surprise is at times an uncomfortable, almost taxing experience. It strikes out with its oddity, even in the opening minutes, and has no reliable viewpoint. The lines between reality and fantasy are blurred, and even the reality may only be “sort of real.”

The film breaks every rule there is when it comes to enlisting the participation of the audience, and it might easily feel like it is defying you to watch. It might be actually, but there is no snobbery involved. It is simply an honest statement about the world. This is not a game for everyone, so let’s be upfront about what game it is. It will suck you in, or spit you out, and it is brave enough to be ok with that.

Light, and nearly whimsical, in its dissection of the human psyche, the film guides you gently to places you’ve already been, and it manages the feat not despite the fact that you never lose the feeling that you’re trying to pull away, but because of it. It is ultimately not so much the things we don’t know that we need to learn, but the things we know and deny.

Smashing walls with the subtle touch of a frail woman where sledgehammers would leave no mark, Lovely by Surprise is a film that realizes the true possibilities of storytelling like few others, and therefore knows that it cannot “do to you” in a way more compelling than it can “humbly suggest you do to yourself.”

Written and directed by Kirt Gunn, Lovely by Surprise offers up the tightest, most strategically crafted script of anything you’ll see all year. A key test of direction lies in conversation (and this is a “talky” film), and they are so spot on here it is difficult to describe, because I’m at a loss to deliver a meaningful comparison. You could throw $100 million at the thing and pick any director you like, and you wouldn’t improve it. And yet, there is all the while a certain humility that bleeds through every frame, like Mr. Gunn is not really quite so sure he wants to say the story is all that good… it’s just the story he’s got.

The brilliance of a truly great book is that at the end you are simply a different person. There are four movies that have made me feel something similar, though movies simply cannot really match the experience, and Lovely by Surprise is one of them.

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After running numerous film festivals for two years, Lovely by Surprise will be available on DVD July 7th. Don’t miss it. The trailer is included below.