Review of the movie The shape of things - Essay Example

Adam (Paul Rudd) is a nerdy, unimposing English Major who works part - time as a museum guard. The stage for the rather one - sided battle of the sexes is set when he meets Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), a sexy, edgy art student. The names Adam and Eve (Lyn) are a not so subtle reminder of the original sin that paved the way for a state of eternal hostility between the sexes and emphasizes the sometimes biblical nature of the film. Evelyn has come to strip away the pretense and false modesty which symbolizes a huge statue that has its privates hidden by a leaf out of respect for the delicate sensibility of the public.

Her purpose is to spray - paint a penis on the offending leaf. Shy, uncertain Adam intervenes and she disarms him with her ready charm and gives him her phone number. She then proceeds to deface the statue as she had originally intended. This random incident sets in motion the events that will bring about a drastic and gut - wrenching change in Adam's hitherto placid, uneventful existence. Not much of a ladies man, Adam is flattered by Evelyn's attentions and he can hardly believe she is attracted to him; therefore he clings to her with a desperate need that is at once pathetic and touching.

Soon he is putty in her hands, literally. Initially she is merely a controlling girlfriend and she badgers him into losing weight, getting a more becoming haircut, losing his glasses and wearing decent clothes. She even convinces him to alter his rather large nose with the help of surgical intervention! But soon her influence over him takes a sinister turn, as he is intoxicated by her smoldering sexuality and overpowering personality and becomes nothing more than clay in her hands to be molded as she sees fit.

He comes completely under her sway as she rules over him with an iron fist gradually alienating him from his friends, Philip (Frederick Waller) and Jenny (Gretchen Mol). Adam's transformation ends with a startling twist, a shattering revelation in the climax of the film. Compelling though the film is it is marred by a number of flaws. The transition from the stage to the big screen calls for certain modifications, particularly with regard to the characters and settings that are lacking in this film.

This is particularly evident in the characters, who come across as rather wooden, one - dimensional and theatrical. Weisz's twisted and frightening Evelyn is a callous, notorious schemer and her motives are transparent to the viewer from the onset. Furthermore she lacks the redeeming quality of likeability which would have served to flesh out and breathe life into her character, while taking away much of its annoying plasticity. The clever twist at the end of the plot would have had more of a sting and been more forceful if the audience had not already become inured to her brand of cold, calculating cruelty.

At the beginning of the film Adam says to her, "You stepped over the line, Miss" and that is exactly what she does throughout the movie, once too often as it turns out. Adam's chronic naivet tends to be unconvincing at times. Rudd as Adam is alternatively endearing and exasperating. He is a little too gullible to be true. For instance he fails to exhibit even a token curiosity towards her art project, her background, friends, interests etc. However, the interesting thing about his character