The Anniversary Party (2001)

It's easy to be skeptical when a couple of well-connected actors throw a script together, start shooting their fabulous friends with digital cameras, and call it a movie. But Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, who bonded in Cabaret on Broadway, have crafted a rough little gem in The Anniversary Party. Influenced by Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Player, it's a devastating portrait of a fragile marriage and a perceptive look at life in Hollywood. The characters are based--to an eerie degree--on their Hollywood counterparts: Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates are a Shakespeare-quoting actor and his retired actress wife; Gwyneth Paltrow is a rising young starlet; etc. Leigh is an actress on the way down, and Cumming, a best-selling author and up-and-coming director, is the sexually ambiguous husband with whom she has recently reconciled. The titular party is to celebrate their sixth anniversary, and revelations about the characters accumulate as the evening progresses from a tense session of charades to an ecstasy-pill-fueled blowout by the pool. The screenplay combines brittle humor with melodrama and consists of more talk than action (as in the Dogme films that inspired it), but the proceedings are rarely less than compelling even if the characters, for the most part, aren't exactly the most likable bunch. As a result, Jennifer Beals ends up stealing the show from the bigger names in the cast simply by emerging as the most genuinely human character--the one who actually showed up to honor her friends' commitment rather than to advance her career. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Amazon.com

IT'S ONLY ME, BUT:

EVER B EEN INVITED YO A SNOBBY PARTY. ESPECIALLLY WHEN THE HUSBANDS BEST FRIEND IS A WOMAN. LOADS OF FUN. JM May 31, 2008

Horrible

This was one of the most unlikable films I've seen in a long, long time.

The mood is set right at the beginning, when the main character just can't keep his hairy armpits from being spotlighted in the camera. It's gross, it's relentless, and apparently the director liked it that way.

Then there's the overuse of the F word, again, setting the I'm-not-going-to-like-this-film mood. F this, F that. It's not even mildly realistic; it's gratuitous.

The film goes from strange to stranger. Pointless. Ugly people. Ugly language. Ugly...I was going to say "ugly story" but there doesn't seem to be a story.

I didn't pay a lot for this DVD, and it's now on its way to the city landfill, where it should feel at home.

Garbage. February 13, 2008

One of my favorites

This movie was done very well. Its more of reality than a reality show. Theres many people in the movie and it shows very nicely their personalities, and little peeks into their lives without even leaving the party. It also shows the realness of extacy and relationships. Its a beautiful movie that will make you laugh, feel calm, cry and want to get up and do E lol. October 6, 2007

Unexpected revelations

This is one of those movies that one does not find many reviews on and it grabs attention on the shelf by the fact that it is pacted with well known Hollywood names. As you watch this movie keep in mind the following: this is a plot about artsy types in Hollywood - if you expect performing aspects of their talent, they are something, but as human beings they are nothing. And to me, that was the entire conflict of this movie - how can people this talented be so shallow? Example is Gwyneth Paltrow's character about up and coming Hollywood actress who is disliked by almost every woman in this bunch by the virtue of being young and pretty - she needs no other faults. As men drool over her youth and unrestrained freedom that sometime bordelines with tactlessness, women seem to loath her. How childlish one would think -- but Hollywood insecurities have no limits, right?

If you are looking for strong character presentation, you will find in in Jennifer Beals' character - unpretentious and sincere. However even her human approach to the situations these people face is turned back because "she is not the wife". For the goofball of them all, you will not be disappointed in John C. Reilly's performance. It is a treat to also see real life husband and wife Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates mingle with this bunch with their down to earth approachability - totally unpretentious despite of the fact that Kline is quoting Shakespeare.

While movie sometimes seems to drag indefinitely with self indulgent self confessions, it is one of those rare moments that one can stop and self reflect on one's own: life, mate, friends, marriage and a whole lot of other things. September 13, 2007

Wish I could watch it...

I would suppose this is not the seller's fault, but this DVD is not formatted to play in a standard DVD player...so imagine my chagrin to find that I've spent money on this purchase...yet, it won't play in my DVD player. I am not impressed with this purchase...what a disappointment. And I'd heard that this was a good movie... hope to see it on cable someday...since this DVD won't work at all. I do not recall seeing, or reading anything about this DVD's 'incompatibility issues' with standard DVD players while browsing the product before purchase. Beware shoppers. August 23, 2007

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