Themes: Breakups and Divorces, Romantic Betrayal, Party Film
Main Cast: Chris Evans, Jessica Biel, Jason Statham, Joy Bryant, Kelli Garner
Release Year: 2005
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A party becomes a metaphor for the wasted lives of a handful of young hipsters in this edgy independent drama. Syd (Chris Evans) awakes from the latest in a long series of drug- and booze-fueled benders when he receiving a phone call from a friend informing him that London (Jessica Biel), who recently broke up with Syd, will be moving away from New York for California with her new boyfriend in a few days, and that a going-away party is being thrown for her that evening. Syd hasn't been invited to the bash, but he decides to attend anyway, and brings along Bateman (Jason Statham), a bartender who moonlights as a cocaine dealer. Bateman is carrying a large supply of nose candy, and after arriving at the party he and Syd install themselves in the bathroom, where they snort line after line while guzzling tequila and discussing philosophical matters regarding love, sex, and emotional pain. The private party-within-a-party is soon joined by Maya (Kelli Garner) and Mallory (Joy Bryant), who share cocaine and sympathy with the guys until Syd learns that London has arrived, and he decides it's time to confront her. London was the first feature film for writer and director Hunter Richards. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Knee-jerk reactionaries will undoubtedly hate Hunter Richards' London. Self-important, over-written character pieces in which scraggly-beautiful twentysomethings snort decadent amounts of cocaine in palatial Manhattan lofts -- well, movies like this are not always received with open arms, especially by audiences bracing themselves against pretentious indie twaddle. This is not to say London isn't usually best described in these terms; it's a film whose surface-level posturing can be irksome. However, Richards' debut feature does manage to be more than that on occasion, almost enough to be worthy of a flier for fans of Jason Statham or an underused Jessica Biel. For one, it's nice to see Chris Evans abandon his pretty boy image from The Fantastic Four to probe the inner frustrations of a wastoid whose problems are largely of his own creation. He and Statham have some good moments of honest dialogue about the mistakes they've made -- in between their copious nosefuls of blow. Statham himself is in familiar territory, having forged a career from roles in which it looks like he might explode into violence at any moment. But his character's key revelation undercuts that assumption as well. Richards' dialogue is what ultimately hamstrings the movie -- for every sharp, relevant observation he introduces into the discourse, there are three left-field bits of pontification about God and the universe. It's too much strain for one small movie in which very little happens. London is best suited as a salve for viewers in the operatic throes of being dumped, who want to vicariously agonize with Evans over minute failings that might have played out differently. But even they might find Evans a little too combustible to identify with. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Andrew Reznik - Art Director, Rhona Meyers - Costume Designer, Hunter Richards - Director, Tracey Wadmore-Smith - Editor, Timothy Wayne Peternel - Executive Producer, David Hillary - Executive Producer, Crystal Method - Composer (Music Score), Erin Smith - Production Designer, Jo Willems - Cinematographer, Ash R. Shah - Producer, Bonnie Timmermann - Producer, Paul Davis-Miller - Producer, John Marquis - Sound/Sound Designer, Hunter Richards - Screenwriter, Nathan A. Smith - Set Decorator, Nicholas Lee - Assistant Director
