“Weird Science” or “My Tutor” for the ascetic set.
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Upon first hearing the title "The Inner Life of Martin Frost," you might think that it doesn´t sound like a particularly promising idea for a film.
Trust your first instinct.
Writer Paul Auster earned his first movie credits as the author and co-director (with Wayne Wang) of the twin films "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" in 1995. Both films were hits on the indie circuit which helped encourage Auster to fly solo as writer/director of "Lulu on the Bridge" (1998) which was not a hit on the indie or any other circuit. Auster wrote for a few film projects (most notably as one of several story-writers on Wayne Wang´s underappreciated "The Center of the World") but did not sit behind the camera again for nearly a decade.
"The Inner Life of Martin Frost" (2007) began as a short film, but, regrettably, finished as a feature-length project. Auster treads on well-worn territory with a tale of a writer who seeks seclusion from society. Martin (David Thewlis) stays at the country home of vacationing friends so that he can recover from a novel that took him a grueling three years to complete. Martin has a surprise in store when he wakes up the next morning next to a gorgeous woman named Claire (played by a gorgeous woman named Irène Jacob, best known for her role in Kieslowski´s "Red"). Like most men who wake up next to a gorgeous woman, Martin is outraged by this intrusion on his solitude.
Claire explains that she´s the niece of the home owners and promises she´ll stay out of his way, but you probably already know that´s not going to happen. Martin gradually warms to his new roommate; he is particularly won over by her tendency to strip naked and have sex with him on demand. As their romance blossoms, Martin discovers that Claire isn´t who she claims to be at all. [SPOILER ALERT] In fact, she´s not human at all, but a muse sent straight from heaven to inspire Martin (by any means necessary) to finish his newest project. It´s the ultimate male fantasy, like "Weird Science" or "My Tutor" for the ascetic set, and it would be downright offensive if it didn´t feel so absurdly antiquated.
Claire´s story peters out around the mid-point which, I would guess, is where the original short film ended. Alas, the viewer is asked to stick around for a second half which involves an unconvincing friendship between Martin and a plumber/aspiring writer, a grating tone-deaf performance by Michael Imperioli. Auster and cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne don´t have many fresh ideas for the look or style of the movie. And Auster contributes the occasional howler to the script:
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