re:mote voices

Title: The Shape of Things
Cast: Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz, Fred Weller, Gretchen Mol
Director: Neil LaBute

the shape of things is the latest film by director neil labute, behind "your friends and neighbours" and "in the company of men". the shape of things was apparently a play, also by labute, which he has adapted for cinema. a fact which is clear, and seems to be one fo the major criticisms against the film, which is to say its wordy and perhaps a little static. however for me that isn't really a big deal, it is something which is easily accepted as is.

like many plays the cast is restricted, in this case to four characters, though the relationship between adam and evelyn (or adam and eve...) is the central one. both are students at a local college, who meet in a local art gallery, evelyn is an artist who is staging a protest against the censorship of a statue, while adam is working as guard protecting the statue. with this scene we are given the initial idea of shape - the statue in question was a male nude, but due to scandal with the shape of his "thing" it had been covered up.

from this meeting the two start dating, with adam undergoing a clear transformation. from overweight, bad hair, bad clothes, glasses, adam becomes fit, gets a hair cut, gets contacts, and starts dressing better. for jenny and philip who have known adam for years this seems to be a miraculous, yet strange transformation. philip and jenny's relationship is a curious one, perhaps strained by the fact that jenny was initially attracted to adam, and it was through him she met philip. with that comes some awkwardness, but it is the changes in the shape of adam that remain central, and his deep love for evelyn that goes with that.

one of the other main criticism is that there is a certain obviousness to the end, and to a degree, especially after a certain point this is true. the ideas behind the shape of people and the relationships between them, and the emotional impacts those have are the themes that come across. in a way that expresses a certain dark humour, labute's reputation for being caustic is certainly evident in this piece. the performances of all four characters are strong, though it is undoubtedly those by paul rudd (adam) and rachel weisz (evelyn) that really make the film work despite it's flaws.