A Not Quite Successful 'Party'

When actors assume creative authority on a film -- by writing, producing, directing, whatever -- there's often a sense of the inmates taking over the asylum. Now, by God, the muse won't be thwarted by those camera-happy directors or the necessity of speaking the dialogue as it's written in the script. The spirit of Cassavetes lives! Except that most such exercises are a reminder of the value of a good director.

The Anniversary Party is written and directed by the estimable actors Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh. They wrote the film for themselves and their actor friends, and it does sometimes feel dangerously clubby (though blessedly without the kind of improv noodling such a project might inspire). Some of the performances are delightful, and a few scenes shine with an easy, obvious comedy -- much of the latter third relies on the effects of Ecstasy for its humor. It is impressive as a quickie, having been shot at one location over the course of 19 days, on digital video.

It still feels more like a backyard relaxation than a movie. Cumming and Leigh play a married L.A. couple; he's a writer preparing to direct a film based on his novel about his own thinly-disguised marriage, she's a leading Hollywood actress whose career is beginning to fade. The liquidity of his sexuality is hinted at during the movie, although the one person he doesn't seem especially available to is his wife -- an early scene of Cumming and Leigh cuddling in bed is one of the least convincing sexual liaisons ever filmed (intentionally so? I couldn't tell).

These two are celebrating their anniversary, having just reconciled after a separation. The guest list includes actor friends (real-life marrieds Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates), Cumming's cunningly controlling ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Beals), the beleaguered director (John C. Reilly) making Leigh's current picture, and his nerve-jangled wife (Jane Adams, doing the movie's best sustained piece of shtick). Somewhat mysteriously, there's a Peter Sellers lookalike (Michael Panes) who does bits from Sellers' performance in The Party, another movie that took place mostly during a long Hollywood soiree. Obviously, it's a nice cast, and some of the lesser-known actor -- -Mina Badie and Denis O'Hare, as square next-door neighbors -- distinguish themselves even amidst the high-profile crew.

So, nice enough. But these actor-friendly circumstances do not guarantee anything. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the dippy star cast in Cumming's movie, playing a role based on Leigh. Paltrow cheerfully sends up her own breathy-ingenue image, yet the performance doesn't become anything other than cute. And consider Alan Cumming, an actor who has been one of the joys of movie-watching since he sneered through Circle of Friends. This is the only Cumming performance I know that is just not very interesting at all (and that includes The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.