The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/23074
Vintage Video An OK ‘Looker’ It’s early January, 2011, and we’re all a wee bit older. The New Year is that custom- ary time to make resolutions _ we insist we’ll exercise more, stick to a stricter diet. Then there are those more shrill complaints that only a cosmetic surgeon can suppos- edly (and expensively) address. All this is often done with the goal of looking and feeling younger. While we’re at it, we might as well turn back the clock three decades or so to take in the late author and screenwriter Michael Crichton’s “Looker,” a semi-sci fi thriller from 1981. Its darkly crafty plot turns the notion of plastic surgery upon its pinned ear: instead of masking any hint of mortality, its recipients find themselves marked for death. Looker stars Albert Finney as Dr. Larry Roberts, a friendly, first-class Beverly Hills surgeon who prospers catering to celebrity cosmetic requests, all while he dreams of drumming up the funds for a pediatric burn ward. A select circle of his spokesmodel clients all have similarly minute demands: they want scant millimeters of their features whittled away, all in the pursuit of an obses- sively specific, seemingly arbitrary esthetic ideal. Roberts is reluctant to grant their eccentric wishes. “Names such as Sinister ’70s Porn Star or Evil Magnum P.I. may have been taken.” He’s got the skill and they’ve got the scratch, however, and so he plays along (all while Vivaldi plays in the operating room). One by one, howev- er, the infinitesimally fine-tuned women are winding up dead _ whether by car crash or apparent suicide. It’s not long before skeptical cop Lt. Sanders (Dorian Hare- wood) has a few questions for Roberts, his expert scalpel the closest police can come to any kind of a “murder weapon.” When frightened former patient Tina (Kathryn Witt) appears at his office, then leaves in a panic, Roberts follows her home _ just in time to watch her plummet (in an unfortunately fairly goofy slow-motion sequence) down onto a car right in front of him. A mustached goon (Tim Rossovich) gazes down from a balcony, wearing (what the ’80s believed to be) space-agey sunglasses. Cindy Fairmont (Susan Dey) is the last of these mildly (and now ominously) edited models. Roberts begins to accompany her every- where, hoping both to help protect her, and to find out who’s been whacking his patients. He’s able to trace their strange surgical march- ing orders to a shadowy outfit called Digital Matrix Industries, and to supremely successful tycoon John Reston (James Coburn). Roberts learns that the company wants viewers’ eyes glued to its products, not the pretty ladies pitching them. The models are being slightly re-modeled to more “selflessly” showcase the merchan- dise. When the pesky women start moving, however, it tosses a human monkey-wrench into the whole formula, and so the project is to be scrapped. So, it seems, are the women _ once they’ve been re- placed with more pliable, durable and altogether tireless computer constructs. “Looker” has a lot of intriguing ideas going for it. Filmmakers from George Lucas to Pixar lend credence to the film’s technological specter (or perhaps Phantom Menace) _ that of mortal actors being out- sourced by computer animated characters; its suggestion that humanity might prove to be an advertising “inconvenience” just might be the secret nightmare of the attrac- tive “Price is Right” employee. Michael Crichton supplies some sly satire of early ’80s commercials, not to mention a truly nifty gadget or two: Digital Matrix has designed a hair-dryer-sized pistol that hits its targets with pulses of light, a flash-bulb blast that makes time appear to “freeze” for its victims. The aforementioned mirrored sunglasses provide protection. In other insidious photon-related news, DMI has also been hard at work making sure its commer- cials will literally mesmerize viewers. In a film that’s essentially about young women, “Looker” rather predictably man- ages to make its far-fetched action hero a middle-aged dude _ an impressive but really less-than-commendable feat. Writer-Director Crichton, imaginative crafter of tales from “Westworld” to “The Andromeda Strain,” might have applied his inventiveness into presenting the novelty of a female protagonist. The “Jurassic Park” scribe could surely have gone so far as to give us a woman _ already functioning in a modeling world where approaching age 30 renders you a dinosaur _ confronted with the film’s unset- tling premise. Looker is not without its other little flaws: Its memorable, morbidly humorous climax finds The Moustache Man (that’s actually how the credits refer to him _ names such as Sinister ’70s Porn Star or Evil Magnum P.I. may have been taken) chasing Roberts through the sets of commercials, even as they’re being previewed for an exclusive crowd of well-heeled guests. Lt. Sanders is also ridiculously content to let Roberts continue his independent inquiry, even as the cops claim they’re “closing in” on the bad guy. One wonders, too, whether DMI’s state-of-the-20th-century-art body- scanning sequences are an excuse to gawk at its nude models. Lastly, “Looker” finds itself saddled with a needless, incredibly clunky title song. Its lousy lyrics are far from easy on the ears, and Vivaldi it ain’t. If you can gut it out past those opening credits, however, this picture is certainly (wait for it, and feel free to cringe) worth a look. _ Sam Benedict Grade: B Jan. 13, 2011 O-Town Scene 19 Vintage Video spotlights older films that may not be on an American Film Institute top-100 list, but are still entertaining.