Life was so much easier–wasn`t it?–when a ”relationship” involved banging a babe on the head and dragging her back to the cave. Certainly the four real-life characters in the fascinating and funny ”The Masculine Mystique” would prefer a return to simpler romantic times, when you might dazzle a dame with dinner and live happily ever after.
Those happily-ever-afters take more work these days, as well they should, and there are ample examples of that toil–and angst, uncertainty, insecurity, confusion, guilt and desperation–in this Canadian film.
It focuses on the lives and loves of four men, stereotypes all, as they attempt to hack their way through a male-female landscape suddenly as tangled as a rain forest. In a real and deliberate way–the title is a large clue
–”Masculine Mystique” recalls some fem-lib films of the `70s.
There is much humor in this reversal of roles and the film is livelier and more entertaining than one might have expected. In large part this is because the principals are not actors. They are everyday Joes replaying relationships based on fact.
The facts are not always pretty. We learn of them in two fashions, through dramatized re-creations and by observing the foursome`s consciousness- raising sessions. This back-and-forth method represents one of the film`s few drawbacks, giving it a choppy feel.
But that`s a minor quibble. Let`s meet the gents.
Blue: a 30ish bachelor looking for the ”perfect woman.” A contrived meeting leads to a date during which he drunkenly recites sexist jokes, turning the girl off. They reunite, in fact cohabit. But his fussbudget style (his cleanliness habits would shame Felix Unger) and his desire to please
(breakfast in bed, pedicures) stifle his woman.
Alex: a 40ish married man whose search for ”personal freedom” has led him into an extramarital affair and brutish breakfast tirades.
Ashley: a thoughtful, 40ish divorced man raising two small children alone in something of a rustic clime.
Mort: a 40ish divorced man with three kids and a relationship with an independent woman. He`s frustrated by this independence and tries, sometimes deviously, to gain a surer foothold (i.e., control) in his lover`s life.
We have seen these kinds of men before. They are our friends. But rarely have we peeked so far behind the tough-guy curtain that men so facilely fashion. ”The Masculine Mystique” is a fine film that raises its many questions in a most enjoyable way. Answers? Forget it. As one fellow admits near the end, ”I don`t have any answers.” No kidding.
”THE MASCULINE MYSTIQUE” (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Mini-review: Looking for love
Directed and produced by John N. Smith and Giles Walker; written by Smith, Walker and David Wilson; music by Richard Gresko; produced by the National Film Board of Canada. At Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. Not rated.
