Review: The Human Contract (2008)

[Michael Dequina]

_The_Human_Contract_ (R) *** (out of ****)

         A successful executive on the verge of 
even greater professional heights meets a woman 
of mystery, upending their own lives and causing 
ripple effects in others'.  It's not a set-up 
that has not been done before (in fact, it was 
pretty much done to death in the erotic thriller 
heyday of the early-to-mid-1990s), but in her 
debut as screenwriter and director, Jada Pinkett 
Smith has far more on her mind than prurient 
surface thrills, making a complex, difficult, 
intriguing film that digs deeper than outward appearances.

         The latter extends to the casting, and 
Pinkett Smith's choice of the relatively unknown 
Jason Clarke as the lead, Julian Wright, proves 
to be especially canny.  Without any existing 
star baggage, Clarke is not only a relatable 
Everyman entry point for the viewer, but he also 
well serves Pinkett Smith's larger concerns.  Not 
only is he adept at conveying the personal demons 
and simmering impulses behind Julian's cool 
exterior, his rather anonymous appearance drives 
home what is ultimately the pervading issue that 
inspires the film's title.  Julian is the very 
pre-packaged, non-individual picture of what most 
people would want out of life--good looking, 
well-off, securely employed, upwardly mobile, and 
still fairly young--or is it what he truly wants, 
or what society has trained him and people in general to equate with happiness?

         Julian comes to question that after 
meeting the mysterious Michael Reed (Paz 
Vega).  Their initial encounter is simply 
fleeting small talk, but when he comes across her 
again by sheer chance, he feels compelled to 
pursue her--and, in what is an early example of 
how Pinkett Smith continually subverts 
conventional genre expectations, seemingly 
straight-arrow Julian quickly shows himself to be 
the more volatile half of the two.  Michael and 
Julian nonetheless do fall into a relationship, 
one that has increasingly dramatic repercussions 
both in their own lives and in those of the people close to them.

         As suggested by that latter point, 
_The_Human_Contract_ does follow a traditional 
erotic thriller trajectory, but that's just the 
accessible genre framework upon which Pinkett 
Smith hangs deeper, more pertinent issues.  Both 
Michael and Julian have been scarred, literally 
and figuratively, from their youths, and it is 
clear they are opposite sides of the same coin: 
she the model of carefree moral abandon, and he 
the picture of cool control.  But what exactly 
that means is the real question: who is happy, 
who is healthy, who is truly at peace, who is 
doing the "right" thing--and what exactly is 
"right" anyway, and by whose standards?  Pinkett 
Smith wisely doesn't attempt to know the answers, 
but through not only Julian's relationship with 
Michael but also his and her relations with 
others, she calls into thought-provoking question 
the idea of the various "contracts" one has in 
life--not only with other people but with 
societal norms and expectations, and how the 
pursuit of such "order" and hence conformity can 
not only be stifling, but potentially destructive.

         That sounds highfalutin and pretentious, 
but Pinkett Smith packages such themes in an 
accessible and absorbing manner, most notably 
through her actors.  Clarke deftly handles the 
tensions brewing within his character, and he 
makes his flaws and frustration real and 
painfully relatable.  He shares sizzling 
chemistry with the always-striking Vega, who has 
finally found an English language film that 
really allows her enchanting mix of beauty, 
sensuality, vulnerability, and dramatic 
depth.  The supporting cast--including Idris 
Elba, Ted Danson, Steven Brand, Joanna Cassidy, 
and Pinkett Smith herself--may not have quite as 
much to work with as the leads, but as is often 
the case in films helmed by actors, Pinkett Smith 
coaxes effective work.  But her careful attention 
to all cinematic aspects further underscore and 
support her larger ideas, such the striking 
contrasts between Julian and Michael's worlds in 
Carlos Barbosa's production design, handsomely 
captured by Darren Genet's cinematography.

         Pinkett Smith does fall into some 
first-time writer-director traps, such as making 
certain things a bit too on-the-nose (for 
example, there are some troubling secrets 
literally kept under lock and key--and in a 
darkroom, no less), but all too rarely does one 
come across a film as both polished, thoughtful, 
and go-for-broke ambitious from even the most veteran of filmmakers.


(c)2008 Michael Dequina



Michael Dequina
mrbrown at iname.com
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