The strength of this film is Spaulding Gray and his storytelling. Gray is witty, intelligent, wry and engaging. He’s doesn’t act terribly over-the-top the way today’s cable communicators do, but he has enough variety in his voice to keep what is basically an 80-minute monologue from getting boring. The tale of his retina pucker here is fun because it not only leads him to outrageous corners in search of a cure – Philippine faith healer, macrobiotic doctor – but it gives a chance for his intelligence to shine, as when he mentions Oedipus, psychology and his mother. There’s hardly a place in the monologue where interest can flag.
Soderbergh’s contribution to the film isn’t what I might have expected. There’s not a lot a originality in his transforming Gray’s performance into film; instead, Soderbergh avails himself of mostly cinematic elements analogous to those available to theatrical director. We get colored gel lights, silhouettes, moving backdrops and chairs, spotlights, and backlighting. In the sweat lodge, there’s some dry ice smoke, too. More cinematically, Soderbergh occasionally uses focus to direct our attention and some interesting cuts. The one element he adds to the monologue is the use of documentary interviews shot in infrared of people who’d had had accidents affecting their eyes. Some of those stories are so affecting that he clearly doesn’t need visuals to amplify them. There’s also some engagement of the interviewees and Gray’s story because they people reflect on some of the points in Gray’s monologue.
Overall, this is a fun, engaging film thanks to Gray’s work. There’s not a great deal of Soderbergh cinematic insight in it.
