Choose Me

Choose Me is Alan Rudolph’s film from about 1984 or so, and it is definitely one weird excuse for a romance. I suppose the intent of the film is to be quirky, and it most assuredly is that. But I think that a few viewers might be unwilling to accept everything that goes on here; they might also be a little disturbed at some of the events.

The story involves a number of characters. Genevieve Bujoud plays a woman with a radio talk show that deals with advice on sex and love. She is supposedly adored and worshipped by her many listeners because of her advice, but in real life, Bujoud’s character is far from an experienced lover. As the movie begins, she is about to move into an apartment, and is rooming with another major character, played by Lesley Ann Warren. She plays Eve, the owner of a club with the same name. She has a different sort of trouble with men. She can’t get enough of them; she’s fooling around with a married man, ends up in a one night stand with one of her employees (John Larequette), and soon is struck dumb by a character played by Keith Carradine. This guy is one strange fellow. He apparently escaped from a mental ward, and comes into the bar, embodying all sorts of romantic, rebellious and other sorts of clichés. I say that because he tells both Warren and another woman played by Rae Dawn Chong all sorts of stories, about how he used to be a fighter pilot, how he was arrested in Russia, how he used to be a photographer (and other professions as well) -- and that he once killed a man in the context of some sort of situation involving love. He also has this desperate (that’s how I would define it) habit of asking every woman he meets to marry him. He does this to Chong, Warren and Bujoud -- maybe he’s a Mormon!

The story is basically one huge and sticky web; all the players, and many other supporting characters get caught. The result is sometimes quirky, sometimes amusing, and sometimes just plain odd. It didn’t help that I was feeling under the weather slightly (that seems to be my excuse for things I don’t understand, isn’t it?), so I was concerned about a few other things as well that day.

The movie left a lot of issues unresolved, I think. I was curious about the whole thing with Bujold and the therapist she speaks to on the phone. Twice, she speaks to him, with the second time being a very inflamed and passionate monologue on her end, and it seems as if perhaps Bujold has some issues. But we don’t know exactly what they are, or if there is something more to her than we think. Is she disturbed? Is there a reason why she has had trouble with men in the past?

Carradine’s character is also a bit of a mystery. He says that he is a pathological liar (but maybe he’s lying about that too!); so if he is, then all these wild stories must be fiction. But then Bujoud happens to root through his things and sees stuff that seems to verify all those crazy stories -- the stuff in Russia, the army history, the Newsweek covers. So what is the truth about him. Surely, the way Carradine plays this character would somewhat suggest that he’s pretty loopy, or at least pretty theatrical.

The big thing about this movie is that it appears to be almost a parody of romantic movies -- Choose Me takes things to the extreme in a lot of instances. The obvious is Carradine’s character; there’s been all sorts of movies about risky guys that women can’t help but fall in love with, but Carradine’s character parades his “riskiness” around until it looks ridiculous. Some of this other “risky” guys look pretty ridiculous too, when looked at from a distance, but I think Alan Rudolph, the director, knows that Carradine's character is pretty foolish, which is an important distinction.

There are some events in this movie that may shock some viewers (although, don’t worry, nobody gets severely hurt!), although most of it is done in the name of really insane fooling around with romanticism. Such insanity will be very obvious at the film’s climax, which I won’t reveal, but is one of those melodramatic moments that, depending on who you are, could be either compelling or utterly foolish.

The elements of this film that I will walk away with include: Genevieve Bujoud and her accent. There’s something about the way she speaks, and her acting style, that almost makes it appear as if she’s not acting at all. It makes her quite endearing, in any case. Also, it’s also worthy to note that Lesley Ann Warren’s character isn’t really judged, by the director or anyone else, even though she is clearly promiscuous. That lack of judgment is probably a good thing --- the point is that she has an issue with commitment. She is far more compelled to follow “the moment”, and takes it to such extremes that she will take any man in sight! She is too impatient to settle down and get to know a person. As well, it was kind of cool to see John Laraquette from the old Night Court series in this movie, even though he doesn’t get a lot of screen time.

Well, I’m sort of iffy on this picture. It is a very interesting picture, although I think it may be a bit too quirky and weird for some, perhaps even for me. I perfer more “rational” romantic plots, I think, than this sort of parody/wackiness, most of the time. Nevertheless, Choose Me is amusing enough most of the time, that it may be worth a view on a rainy day when you’re laid up in the couch for the day.

Rating: ***

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