When
I first heard about Havoc, (like so many other normal males of the human persuasion)
it not only pricked my interest, it interested my prick. The very idea that Anne
Hathaway (Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted and the LDS film, The Other Side of
Heaven) had decided to come flying out of her pigeon-hole toward the other side
of the tracks, was more than welcome news. And if that weren’t fascinating
enough, Havoc was penned by Traffic scribe Stephen Gaghan and directed by the
accomplished documentarian Barbara Kopple (American Dream).
First
of all, the film more than makes good on the reports that Hathaway along with
Bijou Phillips, gets naked on a frequent basis and engages in a number of sex
scenes that are not gauzy teases, but rather dirty and raw. This being the case,
you must be thinking, “wow - how can this baby miss?” Unfortunately
instead of wreaking Havoc, Havoc simply reeks. Considering the brilliance of Traffic
as well as Gaghan’s searing Syriana, I wouldn’t have guessed that Gagham
was capable of creating a film that stinks this badly. It was almost as though
he figured that Anne Hathaway doing the wild thing would be enough to carry it,
and neglected to write a story around it that gave any of the strong sexual content
and nudity any kind of justifiability. Unlike, say a film that confronts it’s
subject matter with real emotional candor (Thirteen) Havoc plays like a mediocre
After School Special. As a result all of the sex, drugs and colorful language,
is not only gratuitous, but sadly the only reason to watch this thing - which
doesn't paint any of us in a very flattering light does it?
Bijou
Phillips has proven that she can be a fascinating sexual force on screen - her
scenes with Ryan Gosling in the Believer are some of the most strikingly original
I’ve seen and added a dimension to that film that must have delighted it’s
creators - it was spontaneous and powerfully erotic and certainly nothing that
they’d scripted. All of which makes her lackluster work in Havoc (and we’re
talking alot of full frontal, borderline pornographic stuff) all the more disappointing.
I don’t mean to sound like a perv, but considering the lengths they’ve
gone to, it’s a shame that it was wasted on a film so laughably ingenuine
and hollow.
For
her part, Hathaway jumps in with both feet herself, she seems perfectly comfortable
with all the nudity, and the surprisingly raw sex, including an oral scene, but
again it’s too bad it was so badly wasted on a film that has absolutely nothing
to say - and missed whatever mark it was aiming for by a mile.
The
story revolves around a group of white, rich and, spoiled high school students
who form a gang to spike their dull lives of privilege. In an early scene they
engage a rival gang in a beach parking lot. Along with a brawl of sorts, there
is alot of trash talk (featuring Caucasians acting and talking like blacks). They
drink and take drugs and openly engage in sex, and then go home to their rich
parents. Hathaway’s parents are played by Michael Biehn and Laura San Giacomo,
whose marriage is on shaky ground, thus allowing their daughter to get away with
pretty much anything. San Giacomo is woefully underused, I wouldn’t be surprised
if she clocks in with less than a minute of screen time.
There
are times when Hathaway narrates, as though we can hear her thoughts and there
is also an ineffectual devise the film-makers use to get into the heads of these
mixed up kids, that involves a fellow student (not part of the gang - but allowed
to tag along sometimes) who carries a video camera around with him everywhere,
evidently to make a documentary about these kids playing at gang life. He has
a crush on Hathaway, whom is the most frequent subject of his filming and there
are a few scenes between the two that are the only reasonably effective parts
of the film. At one point he is filming her as she drives and says something like:
“can I tell you something you might not want to hear? You are the loneliest
person I’ve ever met in my life. In another such scene, Hathaway plays with
the boys crush on her by all the sudden laying on a couch and taking her top off,
when he protests she laughs him off and reaches down her cut-offs and starts touching
herself. Whereupon the kid storms out in tears.
The
meat of the story involves racial tensions between these rich wannabe gang bangers
and a Latino gang from East L.A.. One night, more or less on a dare, Hathaway
and Phillips are taken by their boyfriends “to the East.” In an attempt
to score drugs they have a fateful encounter with Freddy Rodriguez (about the
only compelling character in the film). Rodriguez is the leader of a real gang
and he leaves Hathaway’s boyfriend (Mike Vogel) in a puddle of his own piss.
The girls become fascinated by Rodriquez and the taboo that he represents and
it’s not long before they return to East LA without their boyfriends. The
girls end up finding what they’re looking for and with Rodriguez as their
escort end up having a good time at a party, made all the more seductive because
of the taboo of it all.
Hathaway
and Phillips continue their secret trips to the East and eventually ask permission
to join their gang. Unfortunately joining the gang comes at a cost, as there is
an initiation involving some daring sexual exploits that the girls reluctantly
agree to. Not that the movie really has far to drop, but it really goes downhill
at this point. Havoc is a film that many will seek out because of Hathaway’s
daring turn - sadly beyond it’s shock value the film has little else to offer.
Havoc is just about completely devoid of any emotional depth or real character
development, which is doubly disheartening when you consider the talent of it’s
writer and director. How these two managed to create such a shallow and pointless
film is perhaps the most interesting thing about it. Well, the second most interesting
thing.
