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Jeffrey Wright: "American Fiction"

 Monk, the center of "American Fiction," very much wants a relationship. He stumbles on a lovely and available neighbor. They drink together, and the neighbor explains that she is disentangling herself from a current, unsatisfactory arrangement, and Monk concedes that, at his age, he needs to expect some complications.


The dating process is occasionally bumpy. When Monk introduces his girlfriend to Mom, Mom, who is crazy like a fox, loudly says, "I'm really glad that you're Black!" Also, Monk is a snob, and he criticizes some of his new companion's reading selections. Finally, Monk won't disclose much about his past; when asked, he becomes defensive, and even rude. He is no one's idea of a low-maintenance date.

As everyone has observed, it's terrific luck that Jeffrey Wright is in this lead role; he finds the humanity in Monk, and he never allows you to hate this main character.

The problem is that everyone around Monk is a caricature. His gay brother, played by the straight actor Sterling K. Brown, seems to miss his estranged children--but we never meet these children, and we never even hear anything about them. (As Harvey Fierstein has noted, when a straight actor takes on a gay character, he tends to find himself in the running for an Academy Award....) Additionally, Tracee Ellis Ross is used as a prop; her sudden death at the end of Act One is meant to be a catalyst for major events, but after she dies, the fact of her life is almost entirely absent from the movie. We do not hear her name. It's as if a piece of furniture has been moved off the stage. Finally, the question about "disentanglement"--that moment when you're "over" someone, but still sort of sharing property--seems to be enough material for a movie. But it's just mentioned, and then dismissed. Given that Erika Alexander is (apparently) the female lead in this movie, the writer's sloppiness here is problematic.

A main reason that Monk's domestic story seems under-cooked is that the movie has to make room for a flashy satire plot. The movie argues that we moviegoers don't know characters like Monk, because, too often, we're fed reductive, sensationalistic dramas, i.e., "Precious" and "Django Unchained." But this isn't news, is it? Issa Rae was making this point--in a lighter, smarter way--many years ago, in the early seasons of "Insecure." I may be alone here, but if I were editing the script for "American Fiction," I would remove the satire and just tell the domestic story that the screenwriter allegedly wants to tell. I would make room for the story about Monk's father, the nuance in Monk's sibling relationship, the story of dating that is only hinted at (in the current draft).

I thought this movie was frustrating--and I thought 2.5 stars (from Ebert.com) was actually a fair (and brave) verdict.
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