http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=11931
by James Teitelbaum
(2009-10-24)
2009, Un-rated, 91 minutes
[October 2009]
I can't remember the last time the writer/director/producer of a film
also went topless on screen, but if that's what you're looking for,
here it is, courtesy of Elisabeth Fies: "this is my movie, and these
are my boobies!" With that cinematic first having been racked up,
"The Commune" goes on to ask an important question:
What makes an attractive blonde California valley girl want to gouge
her eyes out with knitting needles?
The answer ought to be clear to us all: Hippies.
Jenny Cross's dad is a hippie. Jenny (Chauntal Lewis) is sent by her
mom to visit dad in a remote Sonoma County new-age colony full of
granola-eating caricatures. Dad is the leader of the commune. His
dozen-odd followers spout cliches about goddess worship and free
love, while literally hugging their 500-year old tree.
Fifteen-year-old Jenny, for her part, is a narrow-minded conservative
Christian mall girl, whose main lament about the closest town is the
lack of cookie-cutter chain stores. Our sulky and materialistic
protagonist hates everything about the healthy food, religious
freedom, and the natural way of life that her dad and his followers practice.
As Jenny, Chauntal Lewis is the best thing in the film.
Unfortunately, she is meant to be fifteen, but Lewis looks every bit
her real-life age of twenty-five. This is doubly unfortunate since
Stuart Bennet and director Fies (playing Jenny's separated parents),
don't seem to be much older than Lewis. Both are miserable actors,
although they both positively shine in comparison to Adrian Lee as
Rhea, the doctor's lover and lieutenant. Every single word coming out
of her mouth sounds like she was reading it off of a sloppily written
cue card, and without her reading glasses handy.
Needing a respite from the incense and tofu, Jenny goes into town and
meets Puck (David Lago), another stereotype: the modern rocker
hatched of the James Dean mold, tough but sensitive, aloof but
desiring love, rebellious but kind. Jenny and Puck do what teenagers
(or twenty-somethings playing teenagers) do, causing Jenny's dad to
forget his notions of free love, at least where his daughter is
concerned. At this point, "The Commune" tries to build tension by
dropping clues about darker cultish behavior within the nauseatingly
open minded commune, as well as clues about a possible molestation
that Jenny once suffered, plus further clues about how weird and evil
it is to avoid fast food and conspicuous consumerism. Jenny's mom
gives her a mission to dig up dirt on dad, so that he'll be pressured
to drop some sort of nebulous custody battle. None of these threads
are fully explored, and the film seems to be having a lot of trouble
figuring out what it wants to be. There is also a paternity issue
that is never clearly resolved.
Due more to the script than to Lewis's abilities, Jenny takes little
action, mostly just wandering through the sets and reacting to almost
every situation with an expression as though she'd just smelled one
of the hippies farting patchouli. It is only in the last five minutes
of the film that the vague hints of plot threaten to come together.
An evil ritual is staged with laughable ineptitude, as poor Jenny
meets a horrible destiny. Jenny Cross probably doesn't deserve her
fate, but Chauntal Lewis definitely deserves better roles than this one.
In "The Commune," anyone who isn't a mainstream Christian, and/or
anyone who likes nature, healthy food, or being nice to people is
actually an incestuous killer who must be a member of a cult of
freaks. Additionally, small-town charm is dull, while malls full of
identical stores run by mega-corporations are clearly the only place
that wholesome people shop. This is the attitude espoused by the
heroine, and it is through her eyes that the entire story is told.
Therefore, we must also conclude that it is the film-maker's thesis.
However, by the end of the film, the hippies end up in a better place
than Jenny and Puck do. This further muddles the issue: who is Fies
wanting us to root for here? There isn't a likable character in the
film, and when the unlikable villains defeat the unlikable heroes,
all of whom are wooden caricatures of extreme left or right wing
cliches, we end up with an unfocused mess of a film.
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