The Human Contract (2008/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
Jada
Pinkett Smith is not always appreciated as the actress and talent she is. After notable supporting work, Set It Off (1996) showed how well she
could hold her own and slowly began her ascension into being more than just
another pretty face or a strictly commercial actress. Picking and choosing carefully, I was curious
and interested in the fact that she was writing and directing her first feature
film. Though the resulting work The Human Contract (2008) does not seem
to be able to finish out on all the ideas it begins, it has its moments.
The idea
of the title is that we are set into certain society roles that affect
everything we do, including our relationships; all the way down to the way we
handle our intimate relationships. The
film has no problems dealing with human sexuality. Julian (Jason Clarke) is up for a potential
big promotion at work, supported by his boss (Ted Danson), but he has some
unresolved issues and they are about to catch up with him.
This
partly involves the intersection between male sexual aggression and violence,
which is rarely addressed by any female directors and hardly ever
otherwise. Though it is not apparent at
first, Julian is more of a snap out kind of guy, made all the more interesting
by being made a sympathetic character for the first few reels of the film. There is also his intense relationship with a
beautiful married woman named Michael (Paz Vega in a potentially star-making
role) and even when the narrative side of the film fails, Pinkett Smith’s
attention to what we might call “heterosexual details” in male/female
relationships hold some serious promise for a directorial career if she can
expand on this while still holding a narrative more together.
Some of
that ability is writerly, others readerly, but it is something new and fresh
that is enough to make me want to see her follow up this film with material in
a similar territory. Though the film
eventually gets away from her and ends too abruptly, The Human Contract could mark the interesting beginnings of
something big in the way the Buckingham/Nicks
album began to foreshadow that duo’s entry into Fleetwood Mac, i.e. the more
interesting aspects became part of a big launch into impressive new work.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image can look good, but is too often soft
throughout despite consistent color and good composition by Director of
Photography Darren Genet, so I would like to see a Blu-ray to compare sometime. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also on the
quiet and dialogue-driven side, though the surrounds do kick in at times. Extras include a feature length Pinkett
Smith/Genet commentary and two featurettes no the film: The Human Experience and Roll
Of Film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
