This film reminded me of AMERICAN HISTORY X in many ways because the films share the same problems and will probably gain fans for the same reasons. HAVOC is filled with smart provocative ideas, but lacks compelling believable characters. The film feels like it’s an adaptation of a sociological paper and not a story about real people.
Allison (Anne Hathaway, THE PRINCESS DIARIES) is a bored rich girl living in Ocean Country, California. She is a member of a pseudo-gang of rich hip-hop wannabes called the PLC. She is dating Toby (Mike Vogel, upcoming POSEIDON), a spoiled, rich kid who thinks he knows what being tough is really like, but he has no clue. Allison’s best friend is Emily (Bijou Phillips, BULLY), a tag-along who wants to be just like Allison. As for a family life, Allison’s father Stuart (Michael Biehn, ABYSS) is always working and her mother Joanna (Laura San Giacomo, SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE) is in and out of rehab for drugs and suicide attempts.
Allison is a smart teen and that’s a major problem with the film. She’s too smart and more so, too self-aware to be the kind of kid who would get involved in the things she gets involved with. One night during a drug deal gone wrong, she meets Hector (Freddy Rodriguez, TV’s SIX FEET UNDER), a dealer who is really hard, unlike her boyfriend. The worst character in the film is a teenage filmmaker named Eric (Matt O’Leary, FRAILTY), who interviews the girls for some film he’s making. The character is extremely underdeveloped and mainly used as a plot device. We don’t even have any real sense of how he is connected to the other characters except that he is making a film about them.
This documentary is also a lazy device to get characters to reveal things about themselves, but it never rings true. The characters reveal too much and sound like well — a sociological paper at times. It also makes the material less compelling because it’s telling us the story instead of showing us.
The film certainly understands what it wants to say, but cannot find a compelling way to say it. Rich idle youth get involved with the thug life to add spice to their existence, but are not equipped to handle the real thug life. The conflict isn’t even amped up to a believable level, presenting fairly amiable thugs for Allison and Emily to hang with. BETTER LUCK TOMORROW about wealthy Asian teens who get involved in the thug-life was far more honest and emotionally engaging.
Hathaway, Phillips and Rodriguez all give compelling performances and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (TV’s 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN & MYSTERIOUS SKIN) as Toby’s thug wannabe best friend shows once again that he is a young actor to keep a close eye on.
Director Barbara Kopple, who made the Oscar winning doc, HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A., and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (SYRIANA, TRAFFIC) have committed the sin of having something to say, but not being able to find the proper vehicle to bring it to the audience. The film has the potential to garner a cult following, but most certainly its fans will be talking about the ideas the film presents and not anything about the film, including its characters or story. The film isn’t a waste of time, but a bit of a waste of talent. Here is an example of a good film weighed down by a flawed screenplay that needed a few more rewrites before it could have been great.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
