Movie Review: I Melt with You
The title alone is quite deceptive – I Melt with You. Maybe because I think of melting in reference to two people falling in love in an “I’ll Stop the World and Melt with You” type fashion just as the Modern English song suggests. This title did intrigue me though, especially when I learned that the movie was about four best friends from high school who now, in their forties who get together once a year and party till they can’t see straight. After the viewing the film, not only did its title still not make sense but I felt I needed to watch the Disney Channel afterward to counteract its grittiness.
The infamous four friends are played by Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven, and Christian McKay. These guys are presumably pretty tight, with each having his own unique present-day reality that is not what he would’ve pictured at a younger age. However, we don’t learn enough about each character’s particular situation to understand why all they want to do is drugs, mainly of the prescription variety, for four straight days. It makes it seem as if these guys really can’t stand to be around each other without being under the influence. The drug use is so grotesque and obsessive that it occupies the entire first 45 minutes of the film, leaving the viewer begging for the story to progress. When the story does eventually move forward, the four men come to the obvious conclusion that their lives really suck, which is apparently supposed to explain the drug use and foreshadow the events in the second half of the film. After one particularly heavy night of partying including a threesome involving McKay’s character, the other three guys find him hanging from a self-made noose in the shower the next morning. The guys are surprised, although I, the viewer, was not. It was easy to predict that something horrific was bound to happen to him as he undoubtedly had the heaviest baggage of them all. Their weekend, along with the film, goes from bad to worse, and from depressing to even more depressing. What eventually happens after the suicide is so incredibly disturbing that it haunts the viewer long after the film is over.
Obviously I Melt with You really bummed me out. Not just because it was a complete bummer, but because I had such high expectations for it. I was initially excited about the cast, but ultimately let down because the characters they played did not have enough depth. Perhaps the first 45 minutes of the film would’ve been better spent developing its characters instead of just showing them party. We viewers are not stupid. We get it, they like to party. Show us that for 10 minutes (at the most) and then move on.
(From left) Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe, and Jeremy Piven in I Melt with You.
© 2011 – Magnolia Pictures.
On a positive note, the movie does do a good job of keeping the viewer trapped in its darkness (assuming that it was the film’s intent). I was at the point of elation upon the realization that I was not a drug addict with a crappy life. It’s kind of similar to watching the people on The Jerry Springer Show and then realizing that your own life is not so bad. Perhaps this realization is the only redeeming aspect of the film.
