Word: bent
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...with that caveat in mind that a viewer will have to approach Bent, a reworking of the 1979 Martin Sherman play which treats the persecution and internment of gay men in Nazi Germany. Handsome and likable but startlingly self-centered, playboy Max (Clive Owen) regularly hurts the feelings of his young lover Rudy (Brian Webber) by sleeping around with other men. But one night Max picks up the wrong soldier at a club, and the next morning the Gestapo appears at their door. On the run from the S.S. for two years, Max and Rudy are finally captured...
...this sounds as if it could be the stuff of which melodrama is made--or as if it could be a heart-wrenching and uplifting success. As it happens, it's neither. Bent lies somewhere in between, neither a failure nor the transcendent triumph it aspires to be. The film suffers from a number of structural problems which distract from its central themes. It's too slowly paced, weighted down by scenes consisting either entirely of dialogue, or of silent, slow and repetitive motion--there's little action and much less spectacle. And, since most of the movie's lines...
Many of these traits, of course, could be viewed as a direct result of the movie's origin as a stage play. But what works on stage doesn't always work on film, and Bent's stagey conventions make it drag along...
...film's acting is generally above average; unfortunately, that's not quite enough to make things work in a film so character-oriented as Bent. Owen's Max is conventionally handsome and is good at looking worried, but he doesn't quite succeed in letting us see into his inner world. It doesn't help that the chemistry between him and his first lover, Rudy, is almost nonexistent. Webber as Rudy exaggerates the younger man's submissiveness to the point that the character becomes almost infantile--while we sympathize with his helplessness, he's petulant enough to alienate the audience...
...would be unfair to suggest that this adaptation of Bent is a total failure--its ambitiousness and intrinsically powerful subject matter aside, there are a number of marvelous moments in the film. The opening sequence, which captures the sensual decadence of a gay Berlin cabaret of the 1930s, is almost worth the admission price by itself. Titillating and visually gorgeous, it's heightened by an unexpected cameo: Mick Jagger, startlingly in his element as nightclub owner Greta (a.k.a. George), performs a throaty torch song in full drag whilst suspended on a platform from the ceiling, in a menacingly campy turn...