The setting of Forty Shades of Blue (Official, IMDb) is the old school music scene of Memphis. We're introduced to Alan James (Rip Torn) right away - a living legend on this music turf, celebrated and toasted. James gives us a touching recollection of how he fell in love with the music around him, a love that he has built into somewhat of a Rick Rubinesque empire.
James's girlfriend, Laura (Dina Korzun), is a waif - but an intoxicatingly beautiful waif (and much younger than James.) She's Russian, so, as she herself states, she must endure. She's soft, both to the touch and on the ears, and so slender that we can't help worry about her being broken. But Laura is already broken. She's given herself to this legend and lives a life of not wanting. It's a common story: she has everything, but happiness.
This is the question that Michael Rohatyn and Ira Sachs are asking: will Laura be able to remain Russian and endure, or will she fight to free herself and find happiness?
Rightly hungry for more story flesh, the writers introduce a twist: James's estranged son, Michael (Darren Burrows), comes home for a visit and falls in love with Laura; thus giving us a thick and juicy love triangle tale.
Focused here, Rohatyn and Sachs would have had an ample onion to peel away to reveal their story, but they instead add other, smaller onions, which take screen time away from our trio.
Turns out that Laura has quite the reputation in James's wide circle. One cannot help but see her not as the innocent waif, but as more of a gold digger that feels disserving of more than the shopping and plush lifestyle her catch has afforded her. To confirm this, a scene is included showing her having a random quickie with a family friend.
Michael is not the victim, however. His character is equally conflicted; his marriage is on the rocks and his actions seem more a response to circumstance than love found (his drunken pass at a female family friend is angrily refuted.)
What Forty Shades of Blue does have is some really fine acting, with Rip Torn at the head of this table. A man who brings us pity in his teary attempt to save his relationship while simultaneously frightening us with an explosive anger that promises much more than is given on screen.
In spite of the acting, nothing could be done to save an ending that sends each of the trio to their respective corners and cuts off before that final round. Michael simply returns home, leaving James and Laura to their failing love. In the end it's just the two of them - their world seems to have abandoned them. And that is what finally breaks Laura. She simply walks away, leaving James behind and calling after her to stop, but she keeps walking.
Ira Sachs's direction succeeds in bringing some exquisite dishes to the Forty Shades of Blue table, but these are tasting portions that you'll walk away from still feeling hungry.
Varied Forty Shades of Blue things:
- Winner 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize
Production:
- Charlie Guidance
- Flux Films
- High Line Productions
- Tiny Dancer Films
US Distribution:
- Capital Entertainment
- First Look Pictures Releasing
