Tempting Fate

Character and destiny in Being John Malkovich and Dreaming of Joseph Lees

A A A Comments (0) By F.x. Feeney Wednesday, Oct 27 1999

Is character really fate? This is where Thomas Hardy and Aristotle part company. At what point do the accumulated cruelties of blind chance make free choice impossible and freeze people’s lives into one unbreakable, usually impoverished pattern? Linstrum poses this question in her script, and Styles makes it shine in his actors‘ performances. Samantha Morton has a great, transparent face that puts her in a league with Sarah Miles in Ryan’s Daughter and Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves, and she is wonderfully offset by Lauren Richardson in the role of Eva‘s kid sister Janie. Richardson’s flinty eyes and slightly wicked, always curious smile are pivotal to measuring Eva‘s progress as Janie observes her tranformations under pressure. Indeed -- given that character and fate are in such a blind contest for supremacy -- the performances become the meaning of the film.

What if Eva’s mean father (Frank Finlay) had let her come along to a family funeral early on in the film, where she might have reconnected with Joseph and avoided getting involved with Harry altogether? What if Harry‘s sexy, self-absorbed sister, Maria (Holly Aird), were not so prone to burdening her brother with bad advice? What if the meddlesome, well-meaning Janie had not decided to barge in, twice? (The first time, her intervention is helpful; the second time, it’s a catastrophe.) Linstrum and Styles never assign blame, but they keep such questions burning in the mind and heart long after the drama has run its course.