That's what I found myself wondering as I watched She Hate Me. What else could account for the improbability that the same filmmaker gave us both the magnificent 25th Hour and this dreadful film?
I won't dwell on the details, but to summarize: The film has two main plot lines. One paints a cartoonish picture of corporate corruption at a pharmaceutical company, complete with "business talk" as mis-imagined by a writer who clearly has never worked in such environments. Ellen Barkin and Woody Harrelson waste themselves in these scenes.
The second plot line is where this train wreck gets truly sad. Jack Armstrong, our protagonist, agrees to impregnate his ex-fiancée (Fatima, who has since come out as a lesbian) and her lover for money. Fatima decides to refer other lesbians to Jack for the a cut of the fee. We are expected to believe that nearly every one of these gay women elects to be impregnated via intercourse with Jack, rather than by artificial insemination.
Along the way we are subjected to a truly embarrassing fantasy confrontation between Watergate security guard Frank Wills and most the the upper echelon of the Nixon White House.
The saddest aspect of She Hate Me is that so many talents (John Turturro, Ossie Davis, Isiah Whitlock), none greater than the wonderful composer Terence Blanchard, were wasted on a script that is at once ridiculous and insulting to the viewer.
Spike, get some therapy.
I won't dwell on the details, but to summarize: The film has two main plot lines. One paints a cartoonish picture of corporate corruption at a pharmaceutical company, complete with "business talk" as mis-imagined by a writer who clearly has never worked in such environments. Ellen Barkin and Woody Harrelson waste themselves in these scenes.
The second plot line is where this train wreck gets truly sad. Jack Armstrong, our protagonist, agrees to impregnate his ex-fiancée (Fatima, who has since come out as a lesbian) and her lover for money. Fatima decides to refer other lesbians to Jack for the a cut of the fee. We are expected to believe that nearly every one of these gay women elects to be impregnated via intercourse with Jack, rather than by artificial insemination.
Along the way we are subjected to a truly embarrassing fantasy confrontation between Watergate security guard Frank Wills and most the the upper echelon of the Nixon White House.
The saddest aspect of She Hate Me is that so many talents (John Turturro, Ossie Davis, Isiah Whitlock), none greater than the wonderful composer Terence Blanchard, were wasted on a script that is at once ridiculous and insulting to the viewer.
Spike, get some therapy.