When the delicate alchemy
at the core of Alan Rudolph's aesthetic is off, as in Trixie and Breakfast Of
Champions, the
results can be downright embarrassing. So it isn't exactly encouraging that the
cult auteur's Investigating Sex was filmed in 2001 but is only now receiving a
discreet direct-to-DVD burial under the moniker Intimate Affairs. While every bit as
leering, the blandified new title more closely evokes the tawdry fare that runs
at 3 a.m. on Cinemax and showcases the formidable talents of Shannons Tweed or
Whirry.
If a film lingers too long
on the shelf, a top-flight cast stops being a badge of honor and becomes
suspect. The thinking inevitably goes from "Wow, that project must be great to
attract such an esteemed cast" to "Wow, that project must suck if even that cast can't secure it so
much as a token theatrical release." So it's a mixed blessing that Rudolph's
film combines the talents of Nick Nolte, Terrence Howard, Julie Delpy, Jeremy
Davies, Dermot Mulroney, Neve Campbell, Robin
Tunney, Alan Cumming, and even a rare appearance by Tuesday Weld. Rudolph's
period romance suggests Kinsey re-imagined as a goofy sex comedy. Mulroney stars as a brooding young academic in '20s
Paris intent on delivering a detached, rational, intellectual study of male sexuality,
funded by raffish stock-market speculator Nick Nolte. The presence of a pair of
sexy stenographers (uninhibited Robin Tunney and repressed Neve Campbell)
proves a wild card that makes the ridiculous farce of separating sex from love
and arousal from emotion seem like even more of a quixotic notion.
With great films like Choose
Me and Trouble
In Mind,
Rudolph long ago solidified his status as one of film's most incurable
romantics, so it should surprise no one that he's made a film about sex that's
really all about love. A cockeyed romanticism pervades the film as its brainy
neurotics pair off with each other and resolve various love triangles. It's a
trifle that traffics more in nervous, abashed chuckles than belly laughs, but
Rudolph's ebullience and his amazingly game cast keep it afloat. In large part
because the circumstances of its DVD release engender such low expectations,
Rudolph's featherweight, briskly amusing little sleeper can't help but qualify
as a pleasant surprise.
Key features: None.