The Grim Cellar

1996, US, Directed by Doug Liman

Colour, Running Time: 96 minutes

DVD, Region 1, Miramax, Video: Anamorphic 1.85:1, Audio: Dolby Surround

Mike Peters has moved to a small apartment in Los Angeles in a simultaneous attempt to use the locale to advance his stand-up comedy career while putting his long-term New York girlfriend behind him. Neither plan is working. His career involves a once weekly evening at some low grade joint while his depression over the split relationship persists even six months after the fact. His best friend, Trent, is adamant that he’s going to show Mike a good time to take his mind off the woman and takes him to Las Vegas for a weekend of gambling and pulling. There he lectures Mike in the art of acquiring phone numbers and they continue to put this into practice when back at home touring various parties and bars. Despite Trent’s convincing instruction Mike can’t seem to help making a complete mess of any attempt at forging a new relationship and the poor guy now seems ‘doomed’ to a life of bachelorhood and misery. But then he meets Lorraine, someone who provides the compatibility that may have been lacking in the others.

There are two things that really help this low budget ($5 million) comedy-drama hit its mark: the performances and the script. As reflected in the above synopsis, the story is relatively simple: one man’s battle to recover from a broken partnership through meeting as many other potential mates as possible while hanging out with buddies. His clumsy ride is at once embarrassing and funny, one of my favourite bits being the aftermath of actually managing to acquire a woman’s phone number - his foolish telephone conduct becomes cringe worthy as he manages to both almost begin dating someone and putting an end to the whole thing within a matter of minutes (and then getting dumped anyway). Mike (Jon Favreau, who also wrote it) mopes around with the weight of a planet on his shoulders, refusing to permit himself the freedom from melancholy we’re not even sure he truly desires. Trent (Vince Vaughn) is the irritating friend who can seem to pull women despite (or because of?) his obnoxious, arrogant nature, and is probably inherently unable to appreciate his good fortune with experience. Their trip to Vegas is equally hilarious - initially setting out as a pair of excited youngsters they’re almost ready for bed after several hours of driving later, plus their infiltration of the wrong casino table is suitably embarrassing. It’s truly a sad existence to have one’s entire motivations revolving around the female species and thankfully it only happens to me periodically, but that’s enough to provide amusing identification with the traumas that Mike endures. The soundtrack does a thorough job of capturing the moods while visually Swingers goes for the grittily realistic look. The film has the word ‘cool’ stamped all over it and its cult status was destined from its inception, but aside from those potential stumbling blocks it’s an original and captivating metaphysical ride through the trivialities of the mating game.

On both sides of the pond this has been released in bare-bones editions followed by SE versions. Obviously opt for the latter. Extras are quite plentiful and image is good, if somewhat over-saturated. Audio arrives in the form of outdated Dolby Surround, but most of the sound is centre-driven anyway, this being a primarily dialogue focused movie, and thus the track serves its purpose adequately. A 5.1 upgrade would not sufficiently enhance the experience. Check out Swingers if you’ve not already done so.