Doug Liman's second film 'Go' lacks freshness and wit

By Oren Murphy

JAKARTA (JP): It's young, it's trendy and it's unencumbered by anything as burdensome as a moral or purpose. Streamlined of anything meaningful, and jacked up with a hip soundtrack, Go literally provides 100 minutes of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Go is the second effort of director Doug Liman, whose widely hailed first film, Swingers, has a well-earned cult following.

The plot revolves around the misadventures of several characters all taking place within one 24-hour period. We begin with Ronna (Sarah Polley), who works as a checkout assistant at a supermarket, and who takes the shift of Simon (Desmond Askew), a Brit who sells drugs to supplement his income. Ronna needs money fast or she'll be evicted from her apartment. When two customers named Adam and Zack (Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr) arrive looking for Simon and his ecstasy, Ronna takes the opportunity to break into the drug-dealing business. She pays a visit to Todd (Timothy Olyphant) who normally sells to Simon. Things go wrong from there.

On a completely different tangent, we follow the escapades of Simon and Marcus (Taye Diggs) who have gone to Vegas to get up to no good and succeed. Simon is particularly effective as the Brit who wants to sink his teeth into Vegas and almost blissfully enjoys the chaos he creates around him as he does so.

In many ways, the Vegas portion of the film is a diametric opposite to the Vegas road trip taken in Swingers. (It seems a road trip to Vegas is stated as mandatory in the Hip Young Filmmakers Handbook.) Whereas in Swingers, the characters embark on the trip pumped up on the idea of Vegas only to find themselves gambling at the low stakes table with senior citizens, Simon and Marcus find themselves in stolen cars, strip joints and burning hotel rooms. The Swingers trip rings truer, although Simon's casual recklessness adds credibility to what would otherwise seem a Hollywood convention.

In case two plot lines are not sufficient to entertain you, a third is introduced which follows Adam, Zack and a narc named Burk and (William Fichtner). They have their own share of mishaps and unfortunate accidents as the evening progress.

Halfway through watching the film, the nagging question begins to form: What is this film about? The answer that emerges is: essentially nothing. A film about nothing is not necessarily a drawback, however. The television series Seinfeld and the film Pulp Fiction both showed that compelling characters, witty dialog and unpredictability are enough to sustain a sitcom or feature film. Larger messages or morals are unneeded, and in fact undesirable.

Indeed, one can't watch this film but immediately think of Pulp Fiction. The nonlinear plot, so firmly patented by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, is used reasonably effectively throughout the film, but after a while feels gimmicky. (The Hip Young Filmmakers Handbook apparently also stresses the need for overlapping story lines.) There are several scenes which seem to be a direct overture to Pulp Fiction, including a conversation in a diner on the cartoon Family Circus, reminiscent of the conversation between Uma Thurman and John Travolta in JackRabbit Slims.

Unfortunately, Go lacks Pulp Fiction's freshness and Seinfeld's wit. Much of the novelty of banter on pop culture has worn off and the audience is left feeling like they are seeing old tricks dressed up in new clothes.

Which is not to say the film isn't enjoyable, because it is. Tight editing and numerous bizarre twists in the plot keep the film highly charged. There is some sharp dialog, including a conversation between a young man high on ecstasy and a cat, but the more human element of Swingers script is traded in for coolness and dark humor.

In the go, go, go frenzy the audience is left wondering where exactly the film is going. This is a question best not asked. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.