The Shape of Things

Is Neil LaBute the meanest guy on the block or is he someone who’s in touch with the darker side of ourselves? Like his earlier film In the Company of Men and, to a certain extent, Nurse Betty, LaBute returns to his soul-searching and audience-dividing roots with The Shape of Things.

Adam (Paul Rudd) is a geek in the best sense of the word. Educated and friendly, Adam is a dork when it comes to his out-of-style haircut and tattered corduroy jacket. He’s part of the invisible majority of the world that goes unnoticed in day-to-day life. By day he works as a security guard at the Mercy College Museum. By night, Adam has no life except for the occasional get together with his ex-roomie Phillip (Fred Weller) and his fiancée Jenny (Gretchen Mol). One insignificant day Adam meets Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) (alarm bells rang in me too when I first heard both their names), a graduate art student bent on removing the fig leaf from one of the museum’s centerpiece statues. The two hit it off and before you know it Adam is not only having great sex, he’s a whole new person. Evelyn raises her beau’s self confidence and brings him out of his shell. Adam takes on a new look complete with haircut, less fat and even a new jacket. But as the changes keep on a coming and become increasingly extreme, questions arise as to the motivations that are driving Adam’s changes.

LaBute, who wrote and directed The Shape of Things, answers all of these questions with one disturbing and unforgettable wallop. Based on a play, also written by LaBute and starring the same quartet during its initial run in London, the film is all talk and little action. Luckily, the dialogue works. It has good flow and sounds, for the most part, real. A talkie such as this runs the danger of becoming a sound off on a theme versus a well-told story. LaBute does make his theme very clear but he does so in a way that is at the same time entertaining. He brings to the table strong ideas about relationships, the role of men and women in said relationships, power, gender, appearance and morals. These are the things that shape our personality and who we are. To boot, LaBute even challenges the definition of art.

All four of the central characters make some disturbing choices that make them all slimy. The Shape of Things is not only relevant, but it’s something to mull over and talk about. This is a disturbing film that left me feeling the need to jump in the shower as soon as I got home. There’s the dark side of humanity for you. And for that I thank you Neil LaBute, you bastard. If only there were more like you to challenging us to look a little deeper in the mirror every day.