Darling Leelee | Between Walk All Over Me and In the Name of the King, it hasn’t been a good year for Leelee Sobieski.
WALK ALL OVER ME
Directed by Robert Cuffley. Starring Leelee Sobieski, Tricia Helfer, Lothaire Bluteau. Feb 15-18 (9pm). Zeidler Hall, The Citadel.
1 1/2 Stars
In the midst of filming Walk All Over Me, Canadian indie-film veteran Lothaire Bluteau approached director and co-writer Robert Cuffley and said, “I have been thinking about the script—either it is genius or it is a piece of shit. What do you think?”
Cuffley took Bluteau’s remark as a joke, but I’m not sure he should have. While it would be unfair to the award-winning director and screenwriter to say the answer had to be one or the other, Walk All Over Me is far removed from the “genius” end of Bluteau’s continuum.
But given the premise, it probably never stood a chance anyway. In Cuffley’s words: “I was intrigued with the thought of a woman meeting someone who was a dominatrix and making the mistake that she could just take on the role to escape a cash crunch.”
And so it goes. After an abrupt, unplanned escape from Coaldale—smalltown anywhere—Leelee Sobieski’s oddly named Alberta ends up in Vancouver on the doorstep of her former babysitter Celene, now a freelance dominatrix sternly portrayed by Tricia Helfer, of Battlestar Galactica fame. Naturally, Alberta’s plan is to start over. Ruining one of Celene’s outfits while playing pretend—captured in an embarrassing montage—gives her a way. After lacing up a clean corset, she intercepts Paul (Jacob Tierney), one of Celene’s clients, to raise cash for a replacement. It’s during their date that Bluteau’s character, René, a nightclub owner, arrives with two henchmen looking for $20,000 he’s convinced Paul stole. Sad stuff: Paul, Rene tells us, was once his “right-hand protégé.” And though it’s not meant to be, I think that’s pretty funny.
During the ensuing violence, Alberta makes a break for it, heading back to Celene with a plan: save Paul, but only to get him to cough up some of that cash.
And that’s pretty much where we quit caring about her.
Cuffley has said he wanted this film to be an exploration of the human need for control. Supposedly, Alberta is emerging from an oppressive past: her departure from Coaldale includes abandoning a drug dealer boyfriend (although whether this relationship was emblematic of chronic bad judgment isn’t clear). But even if her half-baked scheme represents a decision to take charge of her life, the moral bankruptcy of her new beginning keeps us from wanting her to succeed. The character gives Sobieski little to work with, and as a result Alberta comes off as little more than shallow, naïve, and simply greedy.
In fact, apart from Michael Eklund’s unexpectedly endearing performance as one of René’s goons, none of the characters in Walk All Over Me get much development. Helfer, for one, seems to think the essence of Celene is best conveyed by a permanent scowl. René, too, only ventures beyond one dimension when Bluteau lapses into intense fits reminiscent of Gollum hissing about his “precious.” But, while he’s got to shoulder some blame here, his question’s still valid. “Right-hand protégé” isn’t the script’s only sloppy moment. Neither is the bit where Celene, frowning after an encounter with René’s henchmen, remarks, “Those two guys are freakin’ nutbars. They’re insane times 20.”
Another question, though—one Cuffley should have asked—is whether “a person’s need for control” is enough to support an engaging narrative in the first place. In this context, at least, it isn’t. And, judging by the fact that Helfer and Sobieski spend most of Walk All Over Me wobbling absurdly about in high heels and push-up bras, I’m thinking Cuffley knew that all along.
