Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, Toni Collete, Eddie Izzard
Todd Haynes made a film similar to Velvet Goldmine with 2007's I'm Not There, in which he had various actors portray Bob Dylan at different stages of his life and career. Haynes mused on the ideas and perceptions of Dylan and does so here with his David Bowie-esque Brian Slade in this film. Haynes really needs to stop musing. Velvet Goldmine, like I'm Not There, is a disjointed and cluttered film which loses any grasp on what it wants to say about its subjects. It is hard to follow, and soon we just give up trying to give a crap.
The Bowieish Slade is played as a blank slate by Jonathan Rhys-Myers, an androgynous glam rock star in early 70's England who pushes the envelope with his music, outrageous costumes, and sexuality until one day he pushes too far. He is seemingly shot to death on stage during a concert, but it is soon revealed the shooting was a hoax and Slade's audience and fame disappears. He soon drops out of sight and years later, a Slade superfan turned journalist named Arthur Stuart (Bale) is assigned by his magazine to track down Slade's whereabouts. Arthur, who worshiped Brian in more than just a fan way, interviews Slade's ex-wife Angie (Collette), former manager, and other persons who faded in and out of Slade's life and we find ourselves even more confused about him than we did going in.
Another focal point is Curt Wild (McGregor), an American glam rocker who Slade idolizes and soon begins a romantic and professional partnership with. Both Curt and Brian perform original songs and based on their performances, it is a wonder they achieved any sort of fame at all. The songs are loud, shrill, and disengaging. And Velvet Goldmine makes the grave mistake of playing a lot of them, along with accompanying video footage in which the art directors and costume designers ran amok.
The characters don't have the charisma to keep us involved, while Bale spends half the movie with his mouth agape at the sight of Slade, Wild, or both. Velvet Goldmine flashes back between 1984 and the 1970's with an adequate feel for the period and the glam rock revolution, but then Haynes allows the movie to wander all over the place. It feels like it is spinning out of control as much as Slade and Wild are. The screws needed to be tightened big time.
Haynes has directed homages to 1950's melodramas with Far from Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015), both of which were superior films and had something to say about taboo relationships during a period in which they were less welcome than ever before. Velvet Goldmine broaches the same ideas, but then it engulfs itself in overloaded excess, and any caring we have flies right out the window. By the time Arthur figures everything out, we are so detached from the film that we forgot there was something to be figured out.
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