There was a full to capacity crowd at the Yarrow for the first press screening of Deborah Kempmeir's Hounddog or as it's affectionately become nicknamed, "The Dakota Fanning Rape Movie." It's been one of the most talked about movies playing at the festival since it was announced that it would be in competition, and as expected, there was a lot of morbid curiosity after right wing conservatives slammed the film as being child endangerment. In this coming-of-age tale, Fanning plays a young Southern girl from a broken family named Lewellen, who's obsessed with Elvis Presley. As much controversy that has surrounded the movie because of the much-hyped rape scene, that's not even remotely the worst offense of this tedious and overrated film.
Oddly, the movie starts out the exact same way as Teeth, with a game of doctor between Lewellen and her friend Buddy (Cody Hanford), which might make you think that you're in for an innocent story about young love. That is, if you were one of the three people who hasn't heard about that aforementioned rape scene. It's a nice moment before before we meet the rest of Lewellen's family, an abusive father played by David Morse and Piper Laurie as an overbearing grandmother who worries about Lewellen's innocence. When her father gets struck by lightning while driving his tractor in the field, he turns into a babbling idiot who makes lecherous advances on his daughter, walks around nude and does and says crazy things.
Lewellen is obsessed with Elvis, and she even does a mean impersonation, giving Fanning a chance to gyrate and grind in her underwear while singing the title song. When she's given an opportunity to get tickets to the King's upcoming concert, she does this routine sans clothes for an older boy, who rewards her by raping her as her friend Buddy watches. This scene has gotten a lot of attention, since the thought of it is pretty disturbing, yet it's not nearly as exploitative or gratuitous as it sounds. Wisely, Kempmeir doesn't show anything, not that anyone would want her to, because there's absolutely nothing even remotely sexy about the still prepubescent actress.
The writing is pretty awful, the type of Southern gothic cliches that makes it obvious that Kempmeir has read way too much Tennessee Williams. Good luck trying to find a story in this rambling movie that seems to be a lot of character-driven scenes that do very little to move the story forward, and after the rape scene, it's pretty much all downhill from there.
This isn't a particularly good role or movie for Fanning, her bad accent (and worse singing) quickly gets tiring. It's a shame, because she's usually a decent actress, but like her character, she seems to want to take on more adult roles, but it just isn't the best career decision, despite her having had more hits than actresses three times her age.
Still, Fanning fares better than the rest of the cast who proves there's so much scenery to be chewed and so little time with way too many over-the-top performances. Morse makes the most of it, as he drools all over his half-naked daughter in scenes that are as uncomfortable to watch as parts of Terry Gilliam's Tideland, while Piper Laurie essentially plays the same crazed mother figure that she played in The Dead Girl... oh, and Carrie. There's also Robin Wright Penn in a completely unnecessary role as a woman-friend of her father's, who shows up at the beginning, quickly departs and then returns for a number of scenes that do nothing for the plot or character development. It's strange that Kempmeir would wait so long into the movie to explain her relationship to the other characters, and in that time, Morse is forgotten for nearly 20 to 30 minutes, only to return for a forced resolution that leaves us wondering whether he actually committed any sort of inproprieties against his daughter or not.
This really just isn't a very well-conceived movie, and on top of everything else, it never seems to be able to figure out what era it's taking place in. Since Lewellen is trying to get to an Elvis concert, one must assume it takes place in the '50s or '60s, but then there are scenes with a black blues band who all seem to be dressed as if they came right off the street. It's this kind of detail that takes away from the film working, but the lack of story, bad writing, and overacting don't really help either.
Comments (1)
I have never seen this movie, but I've seen clips. Overacting is right. But don't attack Dakota's singing. She's only 12. She practically shines from the screen. Without Dakota, this movie would never have gotten anywhere. The plot is very well made, but idiotic acting from everyone but Dakota and a laughable script bring this movie down. This movie gets two stars in my book. **
Posted by Anonymous | February 4, 2007 12:58 PM
Posted on February 4, 2007 12:58