‘Rare Objects’ Review: Katie Holmes Directs and Costars in a Movie About Mental Illness, Antiques, and Recovering from Trauma – Variety
Benita (Julia Mayorga), the younger lady on the heart of “Uncommon Objects,” the third function directed by Katie Holmes, has been by means of a transformative trauma. Within the movie’s opening moments, she’s discharged from a psychological ward, the place she’s been coping with PTSD; a collection of charged flashbacks present us what occurred to her. In Manhattan, the place she was a college pupil majoring in economics, she was approached at a bar by a seemingly good man, who had a drink together with her, and when she went to the restroom he attacked her, shoving her inside and sexually assaulting her.
She emerges from this crime a shell of her former self, and Holmes shoots the rape in order that we expertise how the shock and horror of it might undermine somebody’s id. Benita, out of the hospital, exhibits up on the dwelling of her doting however quietly stern mom (Saundra Santiago) in Astoria, telling her that she’s taking a break from college; she says nothing in any respect about what occurred to her. She’ll proceed to say nothing — to anybody. As she steps again out into the world, looking for a job, Julia Mayorga acts with a tentative fretful wariness that speaks to the trauma Benita gained’t say out loud, and we assume that the film goes to be about how she confronts this disaster.
It’s, however not in the best way you anticipate. We register the ache below the floor, however largely we see that beneath Benita’s trying-to-be-confident-enough-to-get-by demeanor, she gained’t decide to something — to what she needs to do, to this pal, to that attraction. The film doesn’t commit both. Based mostly on Kathleen Tessaro’s novel, it’s comprised of bits and items that generally work and generally don’t, and that’s as a result of it’s been conceived as a collection of actors’ moments that maintain you after they’re vibrant sufficient (and there are some awfully good actors on show) however that might have used much more cohesion.
Benita, regardless of her lack of expertise, winds up touchdown a place with a ritzy antiques supplier. Peter (Alan Cumming), the ebullient dandy who co-owns the place, has persnickety requirements about every part, however he’s a really candy man, and he responds to how Benita, having carried out her homework, responds to the uncommon objects he has on the market. As somebody who will interface with the store’s high-end shoppers, she’ll have to be a number, an artwork and design historical past buff, a spokesmodel, and a hard-nosed saleswoman who is aware of easy methods to shut a deal. As interesting a setting as that is for a film, I couldn’t assist however really feel that the premise doesn’t fairly parse. If Benita is depressed, hiding out from the world, why would she select a job that’s so presentational, one the place the very nature of it’s that she’s strolling on eggshells?
There’s a flashback to her time on the ward, the place she frolicked with an heiress who heard voices in her head. After which, as Benita is getting ready to greet some fancy shoppers on the store, in stroll the shoppers…and certainly one of them is the heiress, Diana (performed by Holmes), alongside together with her brother, James (David Alexander Flinn). They’re the youngsters of a well-known painter, and Diana loses no time reviving her camaraderie with Benita; the 2 grow to be associates. Holmes’ efficiency has a wild-card factor the remainder of the film might have used extra of — her Diana is a charming alcoholic wastrel, participating however harmful, typically in the identical second, as a result of she doesn’t understand what a flake she is.
“Uncommon Objects” charts Benita’s relationship with this cautionary basket case; with Peter, a delicate soul who’s nursing a trauma of his personal (a lot as I really like Alan Cumming, I cringed a bit when he drowns his sorrows in martinis whereas commemorating the accomplice he misplaced 19 years in the past; sorry, however you need to say, “Transfer on”); with Diana’s brother, who the movie units up as a romantic prospect for Benita; and with Peter’s antiques-shop accomplice, Winshaw (Derek Luke), who looks like he could be one other romantic prospect, which quite confuses issues, for the reason that movie itself appears confused about it.
The confusion is symbolized, in its manner, by the pink cup — a memento of Benita’s mom — that fractures, symbolizing how life itself fractures and we have now to place it again collectively. On the antiques retailer, Peter references the Japanese perception that the cracks in a vase grow to be a part of its worth and, the truth is, make it extra invaluable. The identical is true for us, the movie suggests, once we’re fractured inside. However as compelling as that metaphor is, it’s onerous to not discover how the damaged items of this specific cup preserve altering. At first, there appear to be a few dozen of them. When the items are laid out on a desk on the antiques retailer, it’s extra like 40 shards, a few of them practically mud. When it’s lastly assembled, the cracks within the repaired cup make it appear like it was damaged into possibly six items. We’re meant to be moved, however all I might assume was, The place was the continuity particular person?
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