Hey, remember dashing billionaire Robin Colcord (Roger Rees)
from the sitcom Cheers? Wanna see him
totally nude in a somewhat kinky, heavily arthouse-inflected sexual drama of
submission and domination? Great news — now’s your chance, in the form of writer-director
Eric Werthman’s Going Under!
life of parallel intellectual pattycake alongside his novelist wife. The movie
centers on his relationship with Suzanne (Geno Lechner, above), a professional
dominatrix with whom he’s been involved in a strictly defined, sensual affair
of non-penetrative role-playing in a walk-up dungeon where their anonymity is
protected. Suzanne, however, is preparing to quit her job and pursue her love
of art full time. She has a soft spot for Peter, though, and agrees — and first
broaches the subject, in fact — to see him on the “outside world,” where they
share their real names and try to do normal things like have coffee and chat.
Naturally, all kinds of awkwardness ensues, especially when Peter tries to come
clean to his wife, and confess a deeper obsession to Suzanne, who’s also been
dabbling in lesbianism.
(the movie winks and dashes past this point with a blasé disclosure and a simple
line of dialogue from Suzanne: “Most therapists take a while to admit it”), but
his increasingly erratic acting out stretches credulity for an alleged
professional of his ilk. So too, it’s sad to say, does the notion of Suzanne as
a serious artist; we see her projects, which point to a certain talent, but
learn nothing of consequence of what drives and interests her, what informs
this work that therefore feels quite separate and apart from what we see in the
rest of the movie. Going Under is
painstakingly constructed and fairly nicely shot (David Lynch would probably
like some of S&M scenes, one of which recalls the druggy “Pink Room” from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), but its
narrative rings rather hollow, and there’s not enough fuel in the tank to
really drive the plot’s engine. What one is left with is a quite tonier but rather limp iteration of the old Cinemax model of deviant sexual exploration. Where’s Zalman King, one wonders?
slipcover, Going Under is presented
in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound and
Dolby surround 2.0 audio mixes. An audio commentary track with Werthman and
Rees kicks off the bonus material, and their rapport is solid and banter quite scholarly and informed, if sometimes off the mark with respect to what’s actually unfolding on screen. A 17-minute segment entitled “Pushing the
Boundaries” is comprised of interviews with Rees and Lechner, the latter of
whom talks some about her career trajectory (in particular landing Schindler’s List), and describes having
a strong reaction to this material. Rees, meanwhile, characterizes his typical
offer sheet as consisting of “bad choices or badly lit lawyers in a lot of
movies.” He claims his agents initially kept the project from him, and then
tried to convince him it was “too naughty,” but that good friend Bebe Neuwirth
(I guess some Cheers friendships do
stand the test of time) gave him the cheeky go-ahead. Six random minutes of
footage from the S&M fetish “Black & Blue Ball,” narrated by Lee Kross,
leave one sure of their own sexual proclivities, which don’t involve ball
torture. Also, available as a DVD-ROM audio file, there are reflections on the
movie from Marta Helliesen, a licensed Ph.D. C- (Movie) B+ (Disc)