Monday, May 4, 2009

My Own Private Idaho (1991)--3/5

Critics who admire Keanu Reeves as more than just Neo and Ted (from Bill & Ted) must have "My Own Private Idaho" in mind. Scott (Reeves) starts as a drifting hustler, ends as a charming society man, and has an interlude as "Henry IV's" Prince Hal, complete with Falstaff, here named Bob.

As a testament to the quality of Shakespeare and of Gus Van Sant, the old and the new complement each other. Mike, his father (the Mayor of Portland), and Bob speak in verse for a long stretch of "My Own Private Idaho." It never detracts from Van Sant's recreation of a homeless Portland society.

The combination of flamboyant theatricality and the run-down fringes of a city is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam. Interesting: Gilliam's "The Fisher King" came out one month before "My Own Private Idaho."

Portland is one of four wildly divergent settings in "My Own Private Idaho." Seattle, where Scott and Mikey (River Phoenix) start out, would be similar, but it's scenes aren't played in Shakesperean verse. In Idaho, Van Sant fashions the "purple mountains" and "amber waves of grain" of the film's pedal steel guitar soundtrack as literally as possible. It serves as a humanizing respite for the kids. And Rome has a little bit of both--fast city and slow country.

Mikey often wonders how he got where he is, like when he wakes up at the base of Portland's Elk Fountain. In another film, his daze would be due to drug use. Because he's a narcoleptic, the idiosyncracies are humanizing and tragic.


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