by Jules Brenner

Created on: January 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

This film is astounding. If not for a revelation of the trials actors go
through to get work, certainly in demonstrating how many things a person can
do while driving. Not necessarily safely, mind, so we don't recommend you
try what Naomi Watts pulls off so adeptly in her whirlwind drive around the
hills and studios of Hollywood for auditions.

As Ellie Parker, she's not so different from hundreds -perhaps thousands-

of actors of both genders running around for auditions that agents send them
out on, all eager to show how capable they are for a particular part, to add
their own interpretation to a role. As Ellie does so smartly here, they
dress and make themselves up to suggest the character for the benefit of the
director, producer, casting director "seeing" them in the role... so long as
they know what they're going up for in advance, which is not always the case.

It's a bit of a hoot to see Naomi Watts at this stage, because she actually
was an auditioning actress when this film was being made as a no-budget
short. It was just about simultaneous, in odd fact, that she did her famous
and mesmerizing audition scene in "Mulholland Drive," probably the seminal moment of her career, one that informed the industry she was trying to break into just why
she should be allowed to.

She has since more than lived up to that potential many times, notably in "21 Grams" and "The Ring." Naomi Watts has a rare genius for becoming her role in a field where most actors get by on applying their inherent personality and individual quality to the role. Just a handful of very creative actors, people capable of acting immersion, of personality transformation, exist. Merrill Streep, Nicole Kidman, Maria Bello, you can count Watts' few companions in this ability on the fingers of one hand. These people surprise us when they appear as themselves in
interviews.

The application of this to something so close to who she is and what she's
experiencing is the sum total of value in Scott Coffey's re-creation of it.
It shows a bit of the technique and the illusion of the craft, and a lot of
the angst that's both the driving force and very often the psyche-damaging
factor of the effort. Parker has a need for a home base, but realizes her
boyfriend Justin (Mark Pellegrino) is a limited schmoe she once thought
exciting because he's a musician but now can't stand his idiotic music and
brute manner.

She romps around Hollywood from audition date to audition date, changing
makeup in the car, practicing lines, chatting on the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>