Flirt Blu-ray Review
The three faces of Hal.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 10, 2013
Hal Hartley is a bit of an imp at times, and one has to wonder if perhaps he watched Akira Kurosawa's iconic
Rashômon and decided to put his own
decidedly unique spin on the
idea of the film, if not its story. The Kurosawa masterpiece of course is about an
event told from a number of different perspectives, with the viewer left to wonder which (if any) of them is "the truth". In
Flirt, Hartley revisits the same basic story three times, though he does so through the prism of three different
casts and three different locales and (ostensibly, anyway, given the textual identifiers) three different years. It's hard not
to think of this gambit as little more than a gimmick, for Hartley simply has different actors spouting much the same lines in
all three outings, although the context and, in some cases anyway, a few plot points differ, but there is perhaps method
to Hartley's overly self-conscious madness. Hartley has always been a rather astute observer of the vagaries of love, and
it just might be that this modern day
auteur is doing nothing more pretentious in
Flirt than positing the
universality of those very vagaries. Like a lot of Hartley films, this won't be a film that delights everyone's tastes, but for
those who are attracted to a bit of an unusual premise that has some weirdly whimsical elements interwoven with its
basic story of a flirt trying to decide who he or she will ultimately end up,
Flirt has some passing pleasures.
The film starts with a shot of Emily (Parker Posey) residing on a bed and complaining about how horrible she feels about
not being able to choose between two unseen lovers—one of whom is evidently in the room with her. Does that mean
Emily is the titular flirt of this "episode" of the film? Well, she may in fact be
a flirt, but she is not
the flirt,
for that turns out to be the initially unseen boyfriend, Bill (Bill Sage). Emily is about to leave for London and she wants
Bill's assurance that the two have a future together so that she can decide how to deal with the
other boyfriend
who is waiting to greet her across the pond. Bill unfortunately is either unable or unwilling to instantly give Emily the
reassurance she so desperately needs, and it turns out he is ensconced in a variety of other relationships which he
goes about exploring in the couple of hours he has before he has to drive Emily to the airport. In a variety of scenes
which will continue to play out more or less the exact same way in the other two segments of
Flirt, Bill tries to
decide if he should pursue a relationship with a married woman who has just broken up with her husband. Bill's
unexpected interchanges with that husband (Martin Donovan) have some equally unexpected repercussions which
leave Bill rather badly wounded, something that causes him to miss his appointment with Emily to get her to the airport.
What's a conflicted lover to do?
And so ends the basic one act of the film, which is then repeated twice more, with minor variations. The first repeat
finds a homosexual rather than a heterosexual couple at the center of its love quadrangle (if four is even enough
angles), and an interracial one at that. This particular segment plays out in Berlin and has some allusions to the once
walled city's provocative counter culture. For example in the scene in this segment where the conflicted hero (Dwight
Ewell) attempts to use a pay phone (remember those?) only to have it commandeered by what appears to be a
"working girl", when she finally gives up the phone, she departs the scene with a rather vigorous grope of the guy's
crotch, something that does not happen in either of the other similar scenes in the other segments.
The third sequence takes place in Japan and features a heroine (Miho Nikaido, Mrs. Hal Hartley) rather than a hero, and
which also introduces some more odd elements, including a kind of quasi-kabuki opening scene that has little
relationship to the other two segments. All three segments have slightly different endings, which won't be spoiled
here. One of them
appears to end badly, though in typical Hartley fashion (and come to think of it in typical
Rashomon fashion as well), we're left wondering, while the other two at least hint that rapprochements are at
least available if not necessarily preferable.
Flirt has a really interesting cast scattered throughout its three segments, though American audiences will
probably get the biggest kick out of the New York set sequence which features bits by a very young Michael Imperioli,
Lost's Harold Perrineau and
Fame's Erica Gimpel.
The film is also full of weird little Hartley-esque bits. In the opening sequence, for example, when disaster strikes
between Bill and the jilted husband, suddenly a woman at the bar where the two have had their interchange stands up
and starts doing a bizarre little dance, only to slip and fall on the floor. What is
that all about? But it's part and
parcel of Hartley's skewed sense of humor, which tends to find the "funny" in life's little foibles. The film also starts with
sounds of what may be Hartley himself calling off technical data in preparation for the film's first shot, giving a whole
"meta" ambience to things right from the get go.
Flirt may in fact
be not much more than a cinematic batting of an eyelash or two at its veritable audience, but like a lot of come-ons, it's
just intriguing enough to merit further examination.
