The Shape of Things

When practicing Mormon Neil LaBute returns to the pitch-black comedy that he first made his mark in the world of cinema with, his storytelling is as razor-sharp as ever.
The Shape of Things can be explained by the first sentence uttered: “You crossed the line!”, and can almost be seen as an inverted version of In the Company of Men, LaBute’s feature debut. The film is a screen adaptation of the director’s own original play, in which the story of the unlikely couple Adam (Paul Rudd) and Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and Adam’s old friends Jenny (Gretchen Moll) and Philip (Fred Weller) focus on the less pleasant sides of human behavior. With Evelyn’s help, the usually low-key Adam starts transforming into a trendy, self-conscious and confident person, but Evelyn’s motives are far from pure. In a preppy college environment everything ends up a chain of manipulation and deceit in which everyone plays their small part.
Never moralizing nor too obvious, LaBute puts our most feared and despised behavior on public display, all to a sizzling Elvis Costello soundtrack. But LaBute always manages to explore the dark sides of humanity intelligently and humorously. Perfectly played by a spot-on cast, this is a true gem that has less relation to Nurse Betty than In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors. The film’s tagline is “Seduction is an art”. So is making tragedy this entertaining.
Martin Wegeland

Medverkande
Rachel Weisz, Paul Rudd,Gretchen Mol: Producent
Neil Labute: Manus
Neil LaBute: Foto
James L. Carter: Musik
Elvis Costello: Talat språk
English