Wednesday, September 15, 2021

The House of Yes

The House of Yes; black comedy, USA, 1997; D: Mark Waters, S: Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Tori Spelling, Freddie Prinze Jr., Geneviève Bujold  

During a hurricane, Marty arrives with his fiancèe Lesly to Virginia to introduce her to his bizarre family: his brother Anthony; eccentric mother; and mentally unstable twin sister Jackie-O, who is obsessed with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie-O is puzzlingly jealous of Lesly, until Anthony finds out Jackie-O had incest with Marty, who she still loves. Anthony reveals that secret to Lesly, who has sex with him as revenge, but then regrets it. Yet Marty also had sex with Jackie-O that night. Unwilling to let him go, Jackie-O shoots Marty, while Lesly flees from the house in panic.  

“The House of Yes” is an unusual black comedy which, although shaky in the finale, still announced the future shrill side of the debut director Mark Waters (“Freaky Friday”, “Mean Girls”). Some parts in the film are brilliant, mostly in some deliciously snappy dialogues which at times almost reach the level of E. Lubitsch or P. Chayefsky (“One day I woke up stupid”. - “What’d you do?” - “I went back to bed.” - “That was wise”; “Pennsylvania is just this state that’s in your way when you’re trying to get someplace else.”), and there is even one touching little line by Marty, who says he saw Jackie-O apply make-up, and then just wash it away in tears, at which point he knew he had to go to New York. Underrated actress Parker Posey is excellent as the feisty Jackie-O and steals the show with her sharp antics, whereas a couple of moments even have some higher directorial touch, such as the hilarious moment where, inside the house, Jackie-O has invested a lot of energy to make her own hair look good, but someone opens the door and the breeze just “blows out” her hairdo into a mess. However, the film has two problems. Firstly, what does the title even mean? It is never truly explained and thus remains confusing. Secondly, the whole subplot of Jackie-O being obsessed with Jacqueline Onassis leads nowhere and feels like an intruder, and should have thus been simply removed from the film. It distracts from the main theme of this incest satire. The movie even starts off with archive footage of Mrs. Onassis interwoven with Jackie-O dressed into the former’s pink dress, and the viewers always wonder where the movie is going with this, but unfortunately, it seems it itself doesn’t know, since it plays no role (Jackie-O is already sufficiently depicted as mentally unstable without this masquerade) which makes the confusing ending feel incomplete and arbitrary. “The House of Yes” needed some polish, but you still enjoy in its spicy-macabre dish, and cannot say “no” to it.  

Grade:++

No comments: