This party has more drinks and paparazzi than narrative.
Willem Dafoe has a better drama out in theaters now called “Late Fame,” which has him playing a former poet finding his words again. It’s a drama that reflects on life and what happens takes course. “The Birthday Party,” however, lacks those qualities and goes all over the place with more life and passion and less substance and narrative. It fact, it ends up being too derivative to be complex. This time, Dafoe plays Marko Timoleon, a wealthy Greek businessman being modeled after Aristotle Onassis. Reviewers have viewed the parallels between Marko from Panos Karnezis’ book and Onassis, which would make absolute sense.
The time is 1975, Marko lost his son in a plane crash, and the title of the movie pertains to his daughter Sofia (Vic Carmen Sonne) turning 25-years-old, and her old man hosting a party on his private island. And he has a lot of guests on the island.
He has a journalist Ian Forster (Joe Cole) writing his book (“They already made a movie about me,” Marko says, and no, it’s not “The Godfather”), while he has a secret forbidden romance with his daughter. And to make things even better, she is pregnant, and he refuses to let that baby be born (“I don’t need your permission,” she says, and “Everyone needs my permission,” he responds).
His second wife (Emma Suarez) wants a divorce from him, but while she cares less about money, she still can’t get away from him. This indicates that she knows how powerful her magnate husband is.
And he doesn’t allow the paparazzi on the island, although they do take candid photos. We get quick black and white snapshots, and then a scene when one of them gets exposed. And we see Marko breaking the camera and telling the guests: ‘These things happen all the time.”
There’s a scene when everyone is gazing at the sky and it’s lighting up red, white, and blue. You think it’s fireworks going off, but someone is using a flair gun for entertainment purposes only. And that’s the most interesting visual aspect of the film. And a birthday present for Sofia regards a horse with a horse strapped to its head, making it look like a unicorn. You can tell it’s fake, but at least it isn’t CGI. After all, “Death of a Unicorn” had a much better time with the decent special effects on the mythical creature.
“The Birthday Party” also has Dafoe singing a cover version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” while he looks out at the sea. Although, given his power, his theme music could have also been “I’ve Got the World on a String.” Now, that would have made more sense. The actor does have the convictions to convince us of how unlikable and powerful his character is, and Sonne delivers with the kind of passion you’d expect from a strong-willed daughter of a guy like that. But the movie never really sells us on them. It throws in the music, dancing, paparazzi, pathos, and supporting characters, but it never tells us a story. In fact, I’m not even sure what the point of all this is.
I recall watching a political thriller called “Anniversary,” which regarded parents celebrating their wedding anniversary, never dreaming that their future daughter-in-law would have a book that Hitler would have loved. The math was not good, as it changed America in that movie. So, if you didn’t see a trailer for “The Birthday Party,” you would think it would take a party and lead us to something dark and interesting, but it never does.
Again, “Late Fame” is the Dafoe movie you should be seeing. As for “The Birthday Party,” you hope your invitation gets lost in the mail.
In Select Theaters This Friday