Slipstream

NEW YORK (CNS) -- As its title suggests, "Slipstream" (Strand Releasing) is not an easy film to grasp. As it leaps, without warning, from seeming reality to various levels of hallucination, the movie is always visually daring. But it is also so disorienting that it will likely annoy even those few viewers it may fascinate.

A screenwriter whose name may or may not be Felix Bonhoeffer (Anthony Hopkins, in his writing and directorial debut) is at work revising a script. He is also in the midst of a mental breakdown, having a series of what may or may not be hallucinations.

These visions -- or experiences -- are peopled by the characters in his screenplay, and by the actors and crew of the movie-within-a-movie (Stella Arroyave, Christian Slater, John Turturro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Camryn Manheim, Jeffrey Tambor, Gavin Grazer, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Lawford, Lisa Pepper, S. Epatha Merkerson and Gene Borkan, among them).

Turturro is the standout in this high-powered ensemble, playing a maniacal, overwrought film producer. Veteran Kevin McCarthy -- star of the 1950s sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," to which this film makes extensive reference -- also appears, as himself. In keeping with the overall tenor of "Slipstream," however, he seems not to remember his participation in the earlier movie.

Hopkins' approach to filmmaking might be compared to the style of modern architecture typified by Paris' Pompidou Center where the structural works are the principal focus.

The film is thus not so much a visual story as a self-conscious spectacle utilizing every available film trick. The ultimate result, however, while technically and philosophically intriguing, simply lacks drama.

And "Slipstream" is so bound up in its own affectations that there's no emotional connection with the people on the screen, aside from a certain abstract sympathy for Bonhoeffer's mental anguish.

Hopkins has obviously undertaken a labor of love, even composing his own suitably ominous score. But this demanding, uncompromising film feels like an exercise in self-indulgence.

The film contains shooting and a car accident with blood; much rough, crude and crass language; an obscene gesture; and some innuendo. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops