Marisol Padilla Sanchez in Fever (1999)

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This movie was written and directed by Alex Winter, who is best known to you as "Bill", the member of Bill and Ted who was not Keanu Reeves.

It isn't what you expect from Bill S. Preston, to say the least. It is neither a stoner comedy nor a screwball teenploitation film, but a very serious movie which combines elements of the murder mystery and the psychological thriller.

Nick Parker is a struggling artist who doesn't much care for his life. He lives in a slum tenement, in which the landlord and landlady feel free to make themselves at home in his room. They enter without knocking. The landlord also has a cavalier response to any requests for service, all of which is understandable since Nick appears to be far behind in his rent.

The landlord is killed one night.

The mystery boils down to this: was the murder committed by someone else, or by Nick? Even Nick is not sure. You see, he knows of his own psychological problems, to the point where he ties himself to the bed at night to prevent himself from hurting someone in his sleepwalking trances.

This all seems to stem from some unpleasantness with his parents when he was a little boy, but the details of the childhood trauma are revealed slowly, and even when we see the incidents, we cannot be sure that they are real. In addition to all his other problems, Nick suffers from hallucinations about the present, about the past, and about what happens at night. He is not sure what is real and what is a hallucination, and he's not even sure that he's innocent.

Nor are we.

There are some other suspects including a drifter in an abandoned apartment, and nobody loved the obnoxious landlord to begin with, so perhaps Nick's hallucinations have nothing to do with the crime. Or maybe they do. That's the hook of the movie.

I thought the film was cleverly crafted, eerily beautiful, and interestingly photographed. It maintains a spooky atmosphere as Nick's mental state deteriorates, and we share some of his POV as he wanders through his urban hell. We see things as he sees them. Does the detective view him as a suspect or a witness? When the cop says "Be thankful that you have someone to care for you, while it lasts", is he being solicitous for a sick man blessed by a caring family, or is he suggesting that he'll soon put Alex away?

Alex doesn't know, and neither do we. Alex not only doesn't know whether he's a suspect, he doesn't even know whether he should be.

Unfortunately, although I was impressed with many elements of this film, there were two major drawbacks for me:

1. Man, is the pace slow. The exposition tries to draw a balance between plot advancement and a portrayal of Nick's descent into madness. That's a tough balance to strike, because the plot needs to move forward, but the psychological study wants to be slow and creepy. To my taste, it was too slow. I watched it with some other people, and we all kept shouting, "C'mon get on with it" at the set.

2. When the resolution finally arrives, you still don't know exactly what happened. I think I know, but even the final details were revealed in Nick's POV, so that I still am not sure what happened for real and what he hallucinated. The final scene is unsatisfying, since the plot includes a lot of confusion and misdirection, and the ending doesn't really offer clarification.

Tell ya what. Atmosphere and mood are difficult things to master, and this film does manage to use details and suggestion to generate some claustrophobic, creepy background. The camera set-ups are imaginative and artistic, helping to portray Nick's madness. Ultimately, the film was just a portrayal of Nick's madness, not a murder mystery, and that made its pace a mite languid for my taste or for mainstream viewers.

(My daughter said it was so bad that I shouldn't even dignify it with comments, but she's 15, and not likely to praise a movie that favors style and presents a thoughtful study of madness rather than non-stop entertainment. On the other hand, her perspective will tell you that the film won't appeal to viewers who like a tidy resolution to a fast-paced plot.)

Apollo, The NY Times, The Village Voice, and several IMDb members praised the film, and not without justification. I didn't much agree with the rave reviews, but I can see where they are coming from, and I think this director shows a lot of potential. I sure hope he speeds up the action in the next one, however, and replaces some of the style with substance.

Nudity Report: Marisol Padilla Sanchez did a full frontal as an artists' model.

Critics Vote: There are ten articles online, but none from the major critics.

IMDB Summary: 5.3 out of 10

Box Office: It was generally unmarketed. Although made for six million dollars, and receiving favorable reviews from the Times and the Village Voice when it opened in one New York theater, it never expanded beyond that theater. Total gross was $4,000.

DVD Info: Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1. A good transfer; full-length director/writer commentary (he's joined by the editor); several interviews with the director and cast members.

Written by: Scoopy …scoopy.net