The Event (2003) Review

In 1997, actor Christopher Reeve made his directorial debut with the TV movie In The Gloaming, a drama about an AIDS patient (Robert Sean Leonard) who comes home to die with his mother (Glenn Close). Close was spectacular in the role, garnering an Emmy nomination.

Still, nothing in that film matches the raw emotion of the final scenes between Lila (Olympia Dukakis) and her son Matt (Don McKellar) in The Event, Thom Fitzgerald's heartfelt drama about the lengths some people will go to when faced with the deadly disease of AIDS.

Dukakis demonstrates a remarkable ability to portray the conflicting emotions of fear, compassion and dignity. Forever keeping a brave face, Lila proves to be a tower of strength not only for her rapidly deteriorating son, but also for his sister Dana (Sarah Polley), lover Brian (Brent Carver) and fragile friend Mona (Frasier's Jane Leeves).

Independent film darling Parker Posey also stars as an assistant prosecutor for the New York City District Attorney's office whose investigation of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Matt and several other AIDS patients treated by Brian trigger the flashbacks through which a large amount of Matt's personal story is told.

At the recent Toronto International Film Festival, The Event did not perform up to expectations. Director Fitzgerald, an American who made a big splash with his 1997 Canadian film The Hanging Garden, was in fact assailed by critics for shoddy filmmaking technique, miscasting Posey and relying on a plot that was characterized in one instance as a "bad episode of Law & Order."

The Event is definitely not a perfect film. However, there is no doubt it will appeal both to moviegoers who appreciate unabashedly sentimental storytelling and those who can look past a film's inconsistencies to focus on the pleasures of a standout individual performance. Just as Harrison Ford's work in The Mosquito Coast for example transcended Peter Weir's erratic epic filmmaking efforts, Olympia Dukakis is nothing short of breathtaking in every scene in which she appears.

Whether it's quietly chastising Uncle Leo (Dick Latessa), a family relative who betrays his true colors upon hearing the news of Matt's illness, or inspiring the overworked Nick (Posey) to reconsider some very personal events in her own life, Dukakis is the movie's main event. The complete absence in her performance of any visible acting technique recalls no one so much as Michael Caine, a master of that art form who is suddenly in full flight again with films such as Little Voice, The Quiet American and Secondhand Lions.

Dukakis obviously enjoyed the experience of working with Fitzgerald enough to star in his next film, Three Needles, a drama co-starring Chloe Sevigny that once again tackles an AIDS driven narrative, this time from more of a global perspective.

The 72-year-old cousin of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis will also be seen in the Marley Shelton film Jesus, Mary and Joey and next year's long-awaited adaptation of A Confederacy Of Dunces.

Fitzgerald is an interesting character. In between his maiden theatrical films The Hanging Garden and The Event, he made the 2001 USA TV schlock fest Wolfgirl with Tim Curry, Grace Jones and Lesley Ann Warren and was inspired during its production in Romania to follow up with The Wild Dogs, a semi-improvised digital video drama about the 200,000 stray dogs roaming Bucharest.

Fitzgerald also made a documentary comedy tribute to the muscle magazines of the 1950s, Beefcake, that premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. If for nothing else, the New Jersey native should be applauded for being able to find a home for his decidedly esoteric sensibilities north of the border.

Although The Event is certainly a better film than The Last Supper, a 1994 drama about a dancer (Ken McDougall) who decides to similarly broach AIDS with artistic and unorthodox flair, it is nowhere near as compact a piece of filmmaking as Night Mother, the most acclaimed film in The Event's thematic sub-genre.

Of course, Canadian actor Don McKellar could never expect to be as compelling an on screen protagonist as Sissy Spacek in Night Mother. But Dukakis is easily on par with Anne Bancroft's performance as Spacek's mother in that movie, without the latter's advantage of material based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play.

Although the natural instinct when a film is dominated by one of its parts is to wait for its release on video and DVD, anyone with a personal stake in the issues of AIDS, euthanasia or unconventional medical practices will appreciate seeing The Event in a communal setting.