Themes: Haunted By the Past, Unlikely Friendships, Redemption
Main Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Martin Donovan, Elina Löwensohn, Damian Young, Chuck Montgomery
Release Year: 1994
Country: US/FR/UK
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Hal Hartley's fourth feature is a significant break from the quirky romantic comedy territory of his previous work -- though all of the deadpan idiosyncracies which make him such a singular filmmaker remain intact, here he tries his hand at the thriller genre, a move yielding typically unconventional and innovative results. Amateur stars Hartley mainstay Martin Donovan as Thomas, an amnesiac who, in the first scenes, wakes up in an alley, badly injured; he stumbles to a nearby coffeeshop where he meets Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), a former nun and would-be nymphomaniac who now makes her living writing pornographic fiction. She takes him back to her apartment, where in time his past slowly begins to emerge -- a sharp contrast to the sweet, even naive soul that Huppert has befriended, it appears that the old Thomas was in fact a vicious pornographer whose attempted murder was at the hands of his wife, adult film star wife Sofia (Elina Lowensohn). Thomas is also the target of a nefarious European arms merchant whose hired guns are hot on his trail. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Review
Those expecting Hal Hartley to sell out on his first true foray outside of the drab confines of Long Island's suburbs will be pleasantly surprised to find that Amateur retains the auteur's emphasis on unconventional character pairings, only-in-the-movies plot conceits, and sardonic, self-deprecating good humor. An espionage thriller in outline only, Amateur may present a façade of amnesia, pornography, and gun-running, but underneath it all is Hartley's characteristic obsession with identity, sex, religion, and redemption. This sort of hyper-philosophical character study punctuated by anti-thrills would fall flat were the performers not in line with the filmmaker's skewed universe -- as Hartley would learn with some later efforts -- but thankfully, he's found a cast precision-tuned to the absurd. Working for the first time with the director, Isabelle Huppert seems born to deliver Hartley's intentionally stilted, flat dialogue, and Hartley regular Martin Donovan may very well be the only actor who could make a man with a despicable past so believably sweet. Populating the sidelines are indie luminaries the likes of Parker Posey, Damian Young, Tim Blake Nelson, and Dwight Ewell, rounding out Hartley's most confident -- albeit subversive -- brush with mainstream success. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
David Simonds - Kurt; Pamela Stewart - Officer Melville; Terry Alexander - Frank, the Cook; Angel Caban - Detective; Erica Gimpel - Irate Woman; Michael Imperioli - Doorman at Club; Holt McCallany - Usher; James McCauley - Policeman; Tim Blake Nelson - Young Detective; David Troup - Guard; Emmanuel Xuereb - Bartender; David Greenspan - George, the Pornographer; Jamie Harrold - Pizza Guy; Parker Posey - Girl Squatter; Paul Schulze - Cop Who Shoots Thomas; Dwight Ewell - Boy Squatter; Michael Gaston - Sharpshooter; Currie Graham - Video Store Clerk
Credit
Ginger Tougas - Art Director, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Alexandra Welker - Costume Designer, Greg Jacobs - First Assistant Director, Hal Hartley - Director, Steve Hamilton - Editor, Jerome Brownstein - Executive Producer, Lidsay Law - Executive Producer, Yves Marmion - Executive Producer, Scott Meek - Executive Producer, Ned Rifle - Composer (Music Score), Jeffrey M. Taylor - Composer (Music Score), Judy Chin - Makeup, Steve Rosenzweig - Production Designer, Michael Spiller - Cinematographer, Christopher Goode - Production Manager, Hal Hartley - Producer, Ted Hope - Producer, Jennifer Baime - Set Designer, Amy Tapper - Set Designer, Jeff Pullman - Sound/Sound Designer, Hal Hartley - Screenwriter
Donovan plays Thomas, an amnesiac trying to put his life back together, who meets an ex-nun (Huppert) writing pornographic stories. The scenes of overt violence were new territory for Hartley, but the film was still in his usual deadpan and dialogue-driven style.
