Oleanna

David Mamet is back with a new film, Oleanna. The celebrated playwright and filmmaker has chosen the highly topical subject: sexual harrassment. But it wouldn't be like Mamet to pro-duce something like Michael Crichton's Disclosure (1994), directed by Barry Levinson. As so often in Mamet's films it's more about power and its varying positions. A young student, Carol, is about to be failed on her university course but makes a last attempt to save herself by an unannounced visit to her professor, John. He knows that she has already been failed, but takes the opportunity to explain his meticulous attitude to life to an embarressed Carol. She is deeply depressed when she finally leaves and decides to take her revenge by reporting John for mental and physical assault. John is shocked when he learns of her accusations, but decides to try to meet Carol outside of the courts. This is the first of several meetings between the two. The position of power begins to shift from John to Carol during a violent verbal exchange. They don't attack each other physically, but use everything else that's available: intellectually, morally and finally their male and female stances. Mamet seems to suggest that this is a no-win situation, but his characters have to try to understand themselves first and discover how a thing like this could happen. Did John go too far in their first meeting by using Carol's weak position to let off steam? Are Carol's motives nobel or has she used the legal system to revenge herself on her professor? Mamet fans won't be disappointed. Oleanna may not be his best film, but it's never boring or uninteresting. If one of his favorite actors, Joe Mantegna, had been included in the cast then it may have been even better. Worthy of note for those with their fingers on the pulse is that Andrzej Sekula, famous for his work with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction (1994) and Reservoir Dogs (1992), is cinematographer on this film. Mamet is in some ways similar to Tarantino. Both are excellent writers of dialogue and in Oleanna Mamet excels in exchanges at machine gun tempo. But if Tarantino is almost obscenely interested in references to popular culture, Mamet has his own special tone.