The TGIF Movie Review: Fur
August 17th, 2007 by Matt
Okay, I’ve got to start by saying this about Fur, an imaginative portrait of the life of photographer Dianne Arbus: this is one of the weirdest movies, maybe the weirdest, that I’ve ever seen. For that reason alone, I have to recommend it this week.
Fur, as I’ve already mentioned is capital-”L” Loosely about Dianne Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman), a 50s and 60s portrait photographer attracted by the oddballs and outcasts in our sometimes cruel culture. So, the plot. Well, it goes something like this…. Dianne is stuck in a fairly humdrum life as her husband’s photography assistant, setting up backgrounds for commercial picture-clicking. She also has two children. She’s also bored out of her freaking gourd. Then, a new neighbor (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) moves into the apartment directly above hers. She’s instantly interested in knowing more about this person. Why? Because he wears a mask. After a series of almost-meeting-each-other moments, they meet, and she learns that he hides because he suffers from hypertrichosis. This is a genetic condition sometimes called “werewolf syndrome” wherein the afflicted grow hair over their entire body. How rare is this? 1 in 340 million have it. Her interest in him, and his interest in her, only grows and grows as the movie progresses. I think I’ll leave it there for fear of giving any of this film’s intense bizarreness away.
What is this film really about? Banal, useless, cliche lives. People wanting out of their skins. Dreamscapes and escapes. Stifling home lives. Fears desired. What do we learn? Well, I was walked away with this: we’re all reflections in funhouse mirrors looking for other reflections as awkward and lovely as us.
So, see it. It’ll be worth it just to be able to tell your friends….
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