The House of Yes (1997)

The House of NEED...

This film is a candy-store of dark, delightful cleverness starring Parker Posey. Yes, Josh Hamilton, T. Spelling, Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh-Cook and D. Love turn in solid perfomances. Yes, Bujold's is outstanding...

Parker Posey? Ohhhh babydoll! Her performance: a series of perfect periouettes across the obsidian floor of a dancehall known simply as NEED. She is that Sweetest of Smiles 'pon Lips of Night! She is that Song Promising Dark Delight! In this picture She ascends to filmic Goddess-hood. July 7, 2008

should be called the house of no!!

this was gawdawful!! the characters strain to be eccentric. they try soooo hard to be interesting and odd that they, ironically, become forgettable. there is not one particular trait in any character that stands out. parker posey is supposed to emulate jackie kennedy. none of jackie's personality is reflected, nor are her mannerisms, nor does she get quoted. parker posey's character merely dresses like her. ooooohh! really pushing the boundaries! and then they seemingly throw in the incestous affair as the last resort bait to capture our attention, kind of like they have nothing else in their tackle box. what a waste of a great cast!! it's completely disappointing as a funny / entertaining movie, but it beats watching prime time tv. March 9, 2007

Excellent Movie

This movie may not have the most exciting plot or location, but the razor sharp dialogue more than makes up for it! Quirky, intellegent, and funny. January 10, 2007

House Of Cards

The House Of Yes (horrible title!) is a bizarre, dark comedy with much to like, and dislike - ultimately it feels like an interminable, one-gadget shaggy dog story.

The plot is loopy; suspension of disbelief is one thing, dumb is another. (Why is it that criminal insanity among society's elite seems somehow reasonable to audiences, and excuses shabby construction?)

A wealthy and oddly detached widow has raised her twins, (one male, one female), and their dimwitted half-brother, in an elegant, stately home. The woman is unapologetically vague about the fathers of these children, except to say they were definitely not her late husband. The twins are inappropriately close, even for twins. The girl, who may have killed the father, has an obsession with Jackie-O. The boy twin, attempting to flee this unholy dynamic, has brought his fiancee to "meet the family." The girl twin is pathologically threatened, causing her insanity to kick up a few notches.

This synopsis may sound far-fetched but it barely scratches the surface. Happily there are some splendid performances and snappy dialogue. Parker Posey is downright brilliant as Jackie-O, an extreme part she might easily have overdone. Posey gets many of the best lines and delivers them with a chilling combination of intelligence, madness, malice, and terror.

Tori Spelling is a pleasant surprise. As "the outsider" who wanders into an unsafe, horrific world, she adroitly brings a sweet rationality that is both much needed and overmatched. Also delightful to see Genevieve Bujold, whose smooth performance is so assured it almost makes this absurd environment seem believable. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Josh Hamilton struggle with two-dimensional roles.

The film suffers from "Glengarry Glen Ross Syndrome," it's based on a play, (Wendy MacLeod), action (such as it is) occurs in one setting, and it's entirely dialogue-driven. But in Glengarry Glen Ross you had memorable characters, an interesting situation, spellbinding dialogue, and Mamet did the film adaptation. In THOY you have cardboard characters, ridiculous situations, dialogue that ricochets between witty and ploddingly pompous, and director Mark Waters did the screen adaptation. To see how a great play becomes a great movie, get Sleuth or Deathrap. October 19, 2006

Hilarious dark comedy

The was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. There were quite a few awkward chuckling moments, but a ton of hilarious, quick-witted dialog delivered extremely well by the actors involved. I love dark comedy, and I feel like this movie was dark enough to suite my tastes, but not so dark that I felt uncomfortable, which is a fine line. This isn't a laugh-out-loud movie (though I did laugh audibly), but more of a "He he" movie (if that makes sense)... I haven't seen/read the play, so I can't comment on how closely it matched or if it was what I expected, but I do want to see it performed now!!

Parker Posey does an amazing job as "Jackie-O" in this movie - it would have been pretty easy to be drastically over-the-top in this role, but Posey goes just over-the-top enough to play the role to a T. I thought Freddie Prince Jr. and Tori Spelling did a great job as well. Their roles didn't lend themselves to be done "well" (in a thespian sort of way), but they didn't take themselves too seriously, which made the characters funny. It was great to see them branch out. December 26, 2005

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