Review: Accidental Love
Directors have a singular vision for their work which doesn't always jibe with those of studio heads, who are predominantly interested in getting the best return on their investment. Orson Welles famously never had the same amount of creative control that he possessed with Citizen Kane. Ridley Scott has about half a dozen versions of Blade Runner, a new definitive director's cut popping up every five years or so. Yet few directors have completely disowned a work. Before being Oscar-nominated for The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle, director David O. Russell was working on a film called Nailed. Financial difficulties stopped and started the film, James Caan dropped out due to creative differences, and the production was eventually shut down with Russell officially quitting the film. Subsequently resurrected, many scenes were then filmed without Russell's involvement and the finished product, now titled Accidental Love, finally sees the light of day without Russell's directorial imprimatur.
Whether the film's incoherence is a result of the aforementioned turmoil or already a pre-existing condition is debatable. Accidental Love is a messy sprawl of a film, but that's part and parcel of operating as a screwball comedy. The trick is controlling the chaos, and ensuring that there's a fully formed set of intentions behind the mayhem. Russell is a huge admirer of director Frank Capra; it's all too easy to view this film as his valentine to Capra's socialist comedies, specifically the exemplary Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Alice Eckle (Jessica Biel) is a small-town Indiana roller waitress who gets a nail lodged in her head during her boyfriend Scott's (James Marsden) marriage proposal. She's rushed to hospital only to be refused treatment because she doesn't have the proper health insurance. Her parents can't pony up the $150K required to perform the surgery, Scott is having second thoughts about getting hitched when he witnesses her resulting mood swings, and Alice becomes fixated on journeying to Washington, D.C. after she sees junior Congressman Howard Birdwell (Jake Gyllenhaal) on television, professing his intentions to help anyone who needs assistance.
The film perks up once Alice arrives in D.C., asserting itself as a political satire as Alice navigates the quid pro quos and double dealings that occupy the Capitol Hill set. An amorous Birdwell promises to piggyback an emergency health reform bill to the moon base initiative being pushed by former astronaut and current house whip Pam Hendrickson (Catherine Keener). The satire is admittedly weak and, in these post-Obamacare times, dated but the strength of the satire is, in many ways, beside the point. Gyllenhaal and especially Biel demonstrate a go-for-broke gameness that invigorates the proceedings. There's a clarity in their playing that renders the romance believable and the comedy actually funny.
Their first encounter has the camera panning around a room full of presidential paintings, the lovers' various appendages gawking into frame. Presidents Kennedy and Clinton find their crotches ripped off as Alice experiences her first orgasm. She apologises for her wanton behaviour, a by-product of having a nail stuck in her head. "There's a nail in your head, and it's neurologically making you a whore?" Birdwell responds. A later exchange when he confesses the political pressure he's under - why couldn't he have been a forest ranger - hits the mark again. Gyllenhaal is hysterical, like some kid on a manic high playing dress-up.
Biel is magnificent in what is unquestionably her best performance. This is a performance that strongly suggests that Biel would have been a worthy candidate for the roles that Jennifer Lawrence assumed in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. It is a shame that Accidental Love peters out in its third act, even more a shame that its rough edges were left unsanded. There was something worth doing, too bad it wasn't done right.
Accidental Love
Directed by: David O. Russell
Written by: Kristin Gore, Matthew Silverstein, Dave Jeser; adapted from Kristin Gore's novel Sammy Hill
Starring: Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Marsden, Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens, Kurt Fuller, Tracy Morgan, Beverly D'Angelo, James Brolin, Kirstie Alley, Olivia Crocicchia, Malinda Williams, Bill Hader
