Mr. Jealousy (1997)
If you were to ask your AI bot of choice to analyze this film, the algorithm used to describe it would look something like this:
The first 10 minutes are like the beginning of a Wes Anderson film with less attention to aesthetic formalism.
Clearly and by his own admission Baumbach's biggest influence. This film especially borrows heavily from Annie Hall, in that it's about a relationship between two neurotic and insecure intellectuals from the NY upper-middle class, which is ultimately doomed because of their self-sabotaging tendencies. It also shares the same sort of nostalgic atmosphere that permeates Annie Hall and there is even a director cameo that seems like a direct homage to a scene from that film. Despite the parallels in style and subject, the dialogue is never quite as sharp as that of those early Woody Allen films.
A group of late twenties-, early thirties intellectuals who aren't quite ready to be real adults yet and talk endlessly about their issues in heavily stilted dialogue. Also, Chris Eigeman. He is amazing and makes every film he is in better.
There are cases of mistaken identity that keep getting more absurd until it inevitably all comes to a head, resulting in a big, comical confrontation with all the main characters involved. This brand of comedy is something Baumbach would return to in Mistress America (more successfully in my opinion), where he managed to infuse the climactic confrontation with the manic energy needed to pull off a successful screwball climax. It helps of course to have Greta Gerwig be the center around which the other characters gravitate.
Ultimately, what you end up with is a film that doesn't seem completely sure of what it wants to be. 'Mr. Jealousy' teases the possibility of a darker film, a character study of a person with pathological trust issues. However, the film never really delves deep enough into its main protagonist's psyche for that. Despite the potentially dark subject matter, the tone is kept rather light by focusing on the chaos and the comedy that ensue from the characters' ill-advised actions, culminating in the a sitcom-like showdown where everything is revealed. But then again, the build-up to this moment lacks the frenzied energy of a true screwball comedy and so the payoff isn't really there on a comedic or a dramatic level.
So in the end, 'Mr. Jealousy' is an entertaining and easy to digest (romantic?) comedy that never really reaches the heights of those sharper and wittier influences it so clearly wears on its sleeve.
If you were to ask your AI bot of choice to analyze this film, the algorithm used to describe it would look something like this:
- 10% Wes Anderson:
The first 10 minutes are like the beginning of a Wes Anderson film with less attention to aesthetic formalism.
- 40% Woody Allen:
Clearly and by his own admission Baumbach's biggest influence. This film especially borrows heavily from Annie Hall, in that it's about a relationship between two neurotic and insecure intellectuals from the NY upper-middle class, which is ultimately doomed because of their self-sabotaging tendencies. It also shares the same sort of nostalgic atmosphere that permeates Annie Hall and there is even a director cameo that seems like a direct homage to a scene from that film. Despite the parallels in style and subject, the dialogue is never quite as sharp as that of those early Woody Allen films.
- 30% Whit Stillman:
A group of late twenties-, early thirties intellectuals who aren't quite ready to be real adults yet and talk endlessly about their issues in heavily stilted dialogue. Also, Chris Eigeman. He is amazing and makes every film he is in better.
- 20% Screwball comedy:
There are cases of mistaken identity that keep getting more absurd until it inevitably all comes to a head, resulting in a big, comical confrontation with all the main characters involved. This brand of comedy is something Baumbach would return to in Mistress America (more successfully in my opinion), where he managed to infuse the climactic confrontation with the manic energy needed to pull off a successful screwball climax. It helps of course to have Greta Gerwig be the center around which the other characters gravitate.
Ultimately, what you end up with is a film that doesn't seem completely sure of what it wants to be. 'Mr. Jealousy' teases the possibility of a darker film, a character study of a person with pathological trust issues. However, the film never really delves deep enough into its main protagonist's psyche for that. Despite the potentially dark subject matter, the tone is kept rather light by focusing on the chaos and the comedy that ensue from the characters' ill-advised actions, culminating in the a sitcom-like showdown where everything is revealed. But then again, the build-up to this moment lacks the frenzied energy of a true screwball comedy and so the payoff isn't really there on a comedic or a dramatic level.
So in the end, 'Mr. Jealousy' is an entertaining and easy to digest (romantic?) comedy that never really reaches the heights of those sharper and wittier influences it so clearly wears on its sleeve.