a review by J. Robert Parks
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Director – Spike Lee
Writers – Spike Lee and Michael Genet, based on a story by Genet
Director of photography – Matty Libatique
Editor – Barry Alexander Brown
Music – Terence Blanchard
Production designer – Brigitte Broch
Producers – Preston Holmes and Fernando Sulichin
Sony Pictures Classics. 138 minutes. Rated R.
STARRING: Anthony Mackie (Jack), Kerry Washington (Fatima), Ellen Barkin (Margo), Monica Bellucci (Simona Bonasera), Ossie Davis (Judge Buchanan), Woody Harrelson (Powell), Bai Ling (Oni), Lonette McKee (Lottie), Q-Tip (Vada), Dania Ramirez (Alex), John Turturro (Don Angelo), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Frank Wills), Michole Briana White (Nadiyah) and Sarita Choudhury (Song).
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I guess I like Spike Lee. While most critics hurled invective at Bamboozled, calling it a miserable mess, I found its scathing satire to be absolutely invigorating. Lee followed that up with my second favorite movie of 2003 (25th Hour), which many mainstream critics ignored in favor of Gangs of New York and The Pianist. Now Spike has arrived with the provocative drama-farce She Hate Me, which currently holds a metacritic.com score of 20/100. I’m not about to defend the film as a masterpiece, but it’s not a 20, either. What it is is Lee’s attempt to say something about our contemporary morality.
The credit sequence features close ups of money waving like a flag and ends with George W’s face on a $3 bill, which won’t be the first crack about our money-dominated culture. We soon meet John Henry “Jack” Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), an executive at a pharmaceutical company. His firm has been working on an AIDS vaccine, but the word has just come down that the FDA won’t approve it. The lead researcher jumps out of a high-story window, and soon the company’s president (in an odd performance by Woody Harrelson) is demanding that Jack participate in a cover-up. He has more morals than that and files an ethics complaint, but that only succeeds in getting him fired.
Into this maelstrom walks Jack’s old girlfriend Fatima (Kerry Washington). She left him a few years ago when she realized she was a lesbian. But now she and her partner have come to Jack, willing to pay him $10,000 each if he’ll impregnate the both of them. They want to raise children together, but they’re shut out of all of the normal options. Jack initially refuses, but as his money troubles mount, he reconsiders. While the movie starts out as a corporate drama, it unfortunately drops that angle fairly quickly and instead focuses on the lesbian/surrogate father storyline. Fatima seems to know an unusually large number of lesbians who want children. And for a 10% finder’s fee, she’ll bring a couple dozen women to Jack’s condo who will pay him $10,000 to, literally, be a stud.
As you would expect with Spike Lee, there’s nothing subtle about these scenes. Lee has some fun with gender inversions–Jack has to disrobe and pose like a piece of flesh, the lesbians demand he “put out” even when he’s tired–but then the film undermines that theme by having the lesbians, who are all gorgeous, dress like hookers. Even Fatima, who’s supposed to be a strong black woman, parades around in clothes befitting a rap video. Similarly, a strong heart-to-heart conversation about why Fatima “chose” to be a lesbian gets contradicted by the fact that, with only a couple exceptions, the lesbians thoroughly enjoy their sexual experience with Jack. It’s as if Spike Lee is trying to shed the labels of misogynist and homophobe but can’t quite put on a different set of clothes.
Nonetheless, there’s something liberating about a movie that so resolutely rejects contemporary standards of what’s “acceptable.” Spike asserts his right to tell whatever story he wants, and he’ll throw in a bizarre animated sequence of human fertilization to show that he doesn’t care what you think. Furthermore, this comes back to his idea of morality: that what people do with their bodies is of little importance compared to the greed of corporate and political America. Why do we get so upset about the activities of the bedroom when it’s the lies of the boardroom (or an Oval Office) that have a much bigger impact on our lives? So when he trots out a flashback to the Watergate break-in, it’s not just some weird ’70s moment. Rather it’s the implication that this kind of malfeasance is happening today. This unfortunately leads to a ludicrous moment where Jack actually testifies before Congress, but I give Spike points for trying. The film forced me to think even though I found myself arguing with it at too many points. If nothing else, the line “A price can be put on anything” takes on great resonance.
The biggest problem with She Hate Me is Lee’s lack of control. He has so many points he’s trying to make and he makes those points so crudely at times that most critics have clearly decided the film isn’t worth their time. And when Lee moves in for awkward close-ups or features Terence Blanchard’s syrupy faux-jazz score, I’m not sure I blame them. But then he throws in an inspired cameo by John Turturro, who plays a Mafia boss doing an impression of Marlon Brando, and almost all is forgiven. I also appreciated the performances of Mackie and Washington, who have some awkward dialogue but make the most of it. Jim Brown adds a nice part as Jack’s father. She Hate Me isn’t Spike’s finest effort but, as with all of his films, there’s enough to chew on.
J. Robert Parks also publishes reviews at The Hyde Park Herald and The Phantom Tollbooth.