Shape of Things (2003)

Controversial director Neil LaBute tweaks our culture's moral compass in his dark comedy The Shape of Things. Dorky museum guard Adam (indie heartthrob Paul Rudd, made to look as dweebish as possible) meets student Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) as she's preparing to deface a classical statue; instead of stopping her, he musters up the courage to ask her out. But soon he finds himself so completely in her thrall that he willingly succumbs to her every want--and she wants him to change his hair, his clothes, his face, even his friends (Frederick Weller and Gretchen Mol). In In the Company of Men, LaBute presented two men cruelly experimenting with a deaf woman's affections; The Shape of Things proposes that women can be just as monstrous. Though LaBute could stand to delve more deeply, this well-acted and cunningly written film will provoke conversation afterwards--and not many movies nowadays can do that. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Quick ship - Perfect Condition

Another "out of the ordinary" Hollywood flick. Rachel Weisz is a killer in her role, which is certainly not one I would expect to see her play. A bit dark, but great directing and acting. Worth watching more than once. July 10, 2008

Ok - not as good as In the Company of Men

Not a bad film, but not as profound as it is trying to be. Compared to the directors earlier work (In the Company of Men), this film is a bit of a disappointment. Still, the film does have its moments, and a couple of funny scenes. Eh. There's better stuff out there. February 17, 2008

Gets where it was going

Weisz holds this together. It gets too talky at times but is nicely shot and paced pretty well. The ending is a nice nasty surprise. A little too bitchy for my taste but it does what it sets out to do, with a fair bit of aplomb and style.
Solid comedy of modern manners full of acerbic edginess, brought from stage to screen pretty decently. December 1, 2007

Remember most reviews....

..on amazon are overweighted in the positive direction. Always subtract at least one star to allow for the over representation of film students who generally seem to rate pretentious schlock very highly.

SoT gives an excellent depiction of a psychopathic woman who uses her position as a graduate art student to destroy an unsuspecting fairly decent guy. Whether that was the intention of the filmmaker I can't say. I wasn't interested enough to watch it again with the commentary track.

However the movie has one big inherent flaw.... it doesn't end. It cops out and leaves the viewer with the plot unresolved. So it is a play in two acts and as Shakespeare so amply showed us a good play is in three acts.

Maybe the director couldn't come up with an ending and so left it this way hoping that the viewers would do like so many viewers do and make excuses for his incompetence for him. I don't blame him. It works pretty well. Look how many people here he fooled. July 11, 2007

thought provoking

I knew nothing of this movie and didn't expect to like it, but I found it interesting. Once I became interested in the unusual pairing of Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd, I had to watch the whole thing through.
There's a very sinister suprise ending that made me say...HOW COULD SHE DO THAT? Check it out, it's not too bad!
June 24, 2007

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