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“Rubberneck” is a well-done psychosexual drama that boasts spot-on performances, imaginative camera work and a polished, professional look. What it lacks is anything resembling a surprise.
Director and co-writer Alex Karpovsky (with Garth Donovan), who is also the star, has created a film that is long on mood and short on narrative momentum. Even at 84 minutes, the plot unspools at a languid pace that often slows to a near stop. I recognize that “Rubberneck” is more a character study than a potboiler. But you’ve got to at least have a low simmer, or the story congeals.
Karpovsky apparently plays one of the boyfriends on that hit HBO show “Girls,” unseen by me. Tall and lanky, with dark hair and blandly handsome features, he has a malleable look. Here, playing the meek scientist Paul, he adapts it by hiding his expressive eyes behind tiny, unattractive glasses that I don’t think he ever removes — even when Paul is having sex — which lends the impression of someone peering at life rather than living it.
He’s also got a curling scar at the corner of his mouth, which counteracts with Paul’s placid expression to give the character an unseemly sort of leer.
At a small lab near Boston, Paul hooks up with a new co-worker, the dazzlingly pretty Danielle (Jaime Ray Newman). She seems way out of his league and apparently she decides so, too: their fling lasts one weekend, after which Danielle makes clear it was something much more casual to her than it was to him.
In scenes with his sister (Amanda Good Hennessey), we learn that Paul already had abandonment issues. Their mother left the scene suddenly when they were young, and Paul has turned into one self-absorbed, needy guy — though he endeavors to conceal it.
Eight months pass. Paul and Danielle have settled into an uneasy sort of camaraderie at work with no overt hostilities. Meanwhile, Paul dallies with a prostitute who’s a regular professional woman that happens to moonlight on the side.
They go on actual dates and have conversations, and it’s not so much that Paul is buying sex as renting intimacy. Dakota Shepard makes a strong impression in this small role.
The détente is spoiled when a new guy named Chris (Dennis Staroselsky) starts working at the lab and quickly becomes an item with Danielle, despite being married. With Paul’s careful assistance, complications grow from there.
Karpovsky and Donovan’s screenplay stretches out this tension to its maximum length … and then they pull it a little further. It’s obvious that some kind of break in Paul’s veneer is going to happen, and the audience waits and waits for it to come. When it finally does arrive, its predictability saps away much of its intended visceral impact.
Despite the shortcomings of its screenplay, I still recommend “Rubberneck” for the acting and moody visuals. This film feel overstretched and probably would’ve worked better as a 50-minute short.
3.5 Yaps