Published: Friday, October 30, 2009
Henry Jaglom fans will glom onto ‘Irene in Time’
The dogged career of Henry Jaglom continues with “Irene in Time,” yet another low-budget, homemade offering from a long-running filmmaker. Love him or hate him, Jaglom’s undeniably a true indie.
As usual, “Irene in Time” concerns itself with the vagaries of love ostensibly filtered through a female perspective. Also as usual, the center of the film is occupied by one of Jaglom’s young protegees.
Here it’s Tanna Frederick, who also starred in his 2006 picture “Hollywood Dreams.” With her mermaidy red hair and sculpted body, Frederick seems at first glance an unlikely choice to play a lovelorn L.A. gal.
Then she opens her mouth — or her character does. Let’s not blame all of this on the actress, especially since the needy neurotic she plays is suspiciously similar to other Henry Jaglom characters from the past.
Her off-putting character, Irene, is obsessed with the memory of her father, a dashing sort who vanished some years earlier. No man can measure up, and Irene runs through a few dates with dismal results.
Irene is a completely obnoxious person, so some of her suitors’ skittishness is not entirely unjustified. Seems she can’t stop talking about dear “Daddy,” which gives Jaglom an excuse to include his patented actors’ group improvisations on the subject of women and their fathers.
These tend to play out like jam sessions with amateur jazz players. If you’ve never seen one of Jaglom’s films, the style is improvisatory, with a lot of confessional stories and tears and sharing of emotions.
People in this movie are constantly telling each other how attracted they are to the other person and how funny it all is and how wonderful and beautiful Irene is.
In Jaglom’s movies, it never seems to occur to an actor that silence and under-emphasis might qualify as human behavior.
Irene discovers a secret about her father’s past, which sends the movie toward its somewhat offbeat conclusion. Andrea Marcovicci, the actress and singer, manages to deliver a thoughtful performance and Victoria Tennant glides through as Irene’s mother.
Song sequences featuring Tanna Frederick in a recording studio are interspersed with the action. Except for inadvertently suggesting that every young wobbly voiced ingenue in Hollywood wants to be a singer, the inclusion of these sequences is mystifying.
Jaglom’s searching, emotion-baring style has a fan base. You may have guessed that I am not part of that fan base. Yet I have some level of fascination with how he does what he does and on that level, “Irene in Time” is another intriguing train wreck.
“Irene in Time” ½
Another low-budget navel-gazer from director Henry Jaglom, this time featuring his latest protegee, Tanna Frederick, as an obnoxious young woman obsessed with her dear departed “Daddy.” Jaglom’s improvisatory style is an acquired taste as always and Frederick presents an unusually off-putting central character within his noodling world.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter
Showing: Varsity
As usual, “Irene in Time” concerns itself with the vagaries of love ostensibly filtered through a female perspective. Also as usual, the center of the film is occupied by one of Jaglom’s young protegees.
Here it’s Tanna Frederick, who also starred in his 2006 picture “Hollywood Dreams.” With her mermaidy red hair and sculpted body, Frederick seems at first glance an unlikely choice to play a lovelorn L.A. gal.
Then she opens her mouth — or her character does. Let’s not blame all of this on the actress, especially since the needy neurotic she plays is suspiciously similar to other Henry Jaglom characters from the past.
Her off-putting character, Irene, is obsessed with the memory of her father, a dashing sort who vanished some years earlier. No man can measure up, and Irene runs through a few dates with dismal results.
Irene is a completely obnoxious person, so some of her suitors’ skittishness is not entirely unjustified. Seems she can’t stop talking about dear “Daddy,” which gives Jaglom an excuse to include his patented actors’ group improvisations on the subject of women and their fathers.
These tend to play out like jam sessions with amateur jazz players. If you’ve never seen one of Jaglom’s films, the style is improvisatory, with a lot of confessional stories and tears and sharing of emotions.
People in this movie are constantly telling each other how attracted they are to the other person and how funny it all is and how wonderful and beautiful Irene is.
In Jaglom’s movies, it never seems to occur to an actor that silence and under-emphasis might qualify as human behavior.
Irene discovers a secret about her father’s past, which sends the movie toward its somewhat offbeat conclusion. Andrea Marcovicci, the actress and singer, manages to deliver a thoughtful performance and Victoria Tennant glides through as Irene’s mother.
Song sequences featuring Tanna Frederick in a recording studio are interspersed with the action. Except for inadvertently suggesting that every young wobbly voiced ingenue in Hollywood wants to be a singer, the inclusion of these sequences is mystifying.
Jaglom’s searching, emotion-baring style has a fan base. You may have guessed that I am not part of that fan base. Yet I have some level of fascination with how he does what he does and on that level, “Irene in Time” is another intriguing train wreck.
“Irene in Time” ½
Another low-budget navel-gazer from director Henry Jaglom, this time featuring his latest protegee, Tanna Frederick, as an obnoxious young woman obsessed with her dear departed “Daddy.” Jaglom’s improvisatory style is an acquired taste as always and Frederick presents an unusually off-putting central character within his noodling world.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter
Showing: Varsity
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