Review: Irene in Time (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

IRENE IN TIME
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ***

"You come from a long line of narcissists," Eleanor (Victoria Tennant) tells 
her daughter Irene (Tanna Frederick).  In IRENE IN TIME, the latest film by 
the quintessential indie writer and director Henry Jaglom, the narcissist 
comment is both dead-on accurate and probably the chief reason why this film 
is likely to divide audiences, as it did ours.  Some will find Irene, a 
self-centered blabbermouth, fascinating, since Frederick portrays her 
obnoxious character so well.  Others will find the ever-annoying Irene, 
well, too annoying to be worth spending time with.

On the other hand, if movies were only made up of nice guys and winners of 
humanitarian awards, they would be pretty bland.  And, while I love serial 
killer movies, I hope never to cross paths with one in real life.  So I felt 
about Irene.  I was quite intrigued by her, even if, at a cocktail party, 
I'd probably run the other way if I saw her coming.

While I like some of Jaglom's movies and not others, this one worked for me. 
Still, none of his movies have topped his ALWAYS from 1985, one of my 
all-time favorite films.  (Please don't confuse this small picture with the 
big budget Hollywood picture of a few years later starring Richard Dreyfuss 
and Holly Hunter.)  Even when Jaglom flops, his failures still manage to 
have parts that make them almost worthwhile.

The story is told with frequent cuts to a studio where Irene belts out one 
tune after another, with my favorite being a little ditty with lines that 
include "Starbucks burning bright."  Frederick told us after our screening 
of the film that she had never sung before, except in the shower, but was 
willing to give it a try.  She probably will not be offered a recording 
contract based on her musicality, but her singing is quite pleasant to the 
ears.

The fairly unoriginal plot of IRENE IN TIME concerns Irene's lousy love 
life.  Always on the hunt for a man, she almost runs screaming from a 
restaurant when an old beau, out of the blue, proposes marriage to her. 
More typical are her dates in which she tries so hard to be interested in 
her dinner companions that she scares them away.  Although she is a 
voracious reader of such books as "Stop Getting Dumped," the books can't 
save her from herself.

When one date reluctantly tells her that he develops strip malls for a 
living, she gushes out a long string of over-the-top thoughts that are as 
shallow as they are disingenuous.  The uncontrollably loquacious Irene ends 
a long string of nearly incomprehensible thoughts with, "mini-malls are so 
great!"  The unlucky guy discovers that he can't find the exit fast enough.

Somehow, for all of her flaws, including an obsession with her dead father, 
Irene slowly and surprisingly worked her way into my heart.  Because of 
this, I found the film's ending particularly effective and poignant.

What I did not realize at the time was that the ending was ambiguous.  After 
our screening was over, the director polled our audience.  As it turned out, 
about half of the audience interpreted the ending one way, while the other 
half had a completely different understanding of it.  Moreover, until Jaglom 
did the poll, almost all of the audience did not realize the ending had any 
ambiguity whatsoever.  For the record, we asked Frederick what the ending 
meant, but she would not comment, saying it was for every viewer to 
interpret it in their own way.

IRENE IN TIME runs 1:35.   It is rated PG-13 for "thematic elements and some 
sexual content" and would be acceptable for kids around 10 and up.

The film is playing in limited release now in the United States.  The movie 
was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com) 
of Campbell and San Jose.

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