Essential for Mickey Rourke fans, annoying for everyone else, Spun is a
hyperactive black comedy high on the grungy glamour of drugs.
The story is slight. Society drop-out Ross (Jason Schwartzman) sets off to
score some speed, but his usual supplier (John Leguizamo) is empty. So
airhead Nikki (Brittany Murphy) takes him to see her other half, The Cook
(Rourke). Soon, Ross is running errands for the cowboy-hatted, hard-headed
drug-generator.
"FEATHER-LIGHT"
Rourke is the one reason to see this film. Battered by his own years of
substance abuse, he blends experience with screen presence to bring weight
to this feather-light movie.
Everyone else is so obviously acting it's embarrassing. There's American
Beauty's Mena Suvari self-consciously slumming it by displaying (oh no!)
dirty teeth to the camera; Murphy offering a cutesy idiot routine which is
just lazy for someone with her talent; Peter Stormare as a cop so
larger-than-life he could have walked straight out of a Beastie Boys video.
This is unsurprising, given that first-time feature director Jonas Ã…kerlund's
background is in making music videos. The whole thing feels like a promo for
X-rated MTV, with a 'wacky' cartoon sequence, fastforwarded footage, and
super quick cuts.
"LACK OF SUBSTANCE"
But style can't disguise a lack of substance. Every hardship feels
painted on and nothing (Rourke apart) is remotely real. The characters are
stereotypes, the gee-look-what-drugs-do effects soon become dull.
Ã…kerlund clearly knows how to handle a camera, but he can't yet tell a
story. There's also an irritating hypocrisy to a movie that suggests
substance abuse is squalid, yet makes its speed freak hero irresistible to
women. Spun wants to damn drugs and enjoy them. Like an ex-addict
reminiscing over their days of dependence, it's dead behind the eyes:
hollowed out.
Spun (2003)
