Review: Appropriate Behaviour

Desiree Akhavan plays Iranian-American bisexual Shirin, who has broken up with her girlfriend Maxine (Rebecca Henderson) and spends the entire film struggling to get over it. We also go back to see how it all came undone, as Shirin’s hesitance to come out to her traditional family started to grate on Maxine.

 

If you are a fan of the TV series “Girls”, you’ll probably like this 2015 indie romantic-comedy from writer/director/star Desiree Akhavan (who herself has appeared on “Girls” a couple of times if I’m not mistaken). I’m not remotely a fan of “Girls”, and the only thing that makes this thing any more palatable is the innate charisma of Ms. Akhavan. A mixture of Sandra Bullock and a young Mercedes Ruehl, the deadpan Iranian-American actress and debut filmmaker has that intangible ‘something’ as an actress. She’s certainly far more charismatic than “Girls” creator/star Lena Dunham (whose whole schtick seems to be founded on the fact that she’s quirky, different, doesn’t have a model’s body, and is covered in tattoos, as though all of this adds up to something interesting or worthy of a TV show in and of itself. But it’s a popular show, so what do I know?), whom I’ve never found particularly interesting, appealing, or talented. Even that ‘something’ Akhavan has, however, is hampered a bit by her increasingly unlikeable, self-absorbed character. She becomes a bit insufferable, not to mention irritatingly indecisive. I could care less if she likes chicks or guys, both or neither, but after 60 minutes I still didn’t think she had a fucking clue which category she belonged to. 60 minutes of that proves pretty tiring. She’s not nearly as irritating as the character Lena Dunham plays on “Girls”, but it’s not a world away, either (both are overgrown children and rather aimless).

 

I also don’t think it helps that actress Rebecca Henderson is singularly unappealing and uninteresting as the ex-girlfriend. If you’re gonna cast someone as the girl our heroine can’t get over, you’d best cast someone pretty fucking magnetic or interesting in the role. You wonder what all the fuss is about, really, with this humourless frump. It’s also typical indie modern romcom stuff, right down to the indecisive lead character, artsy interests, hipster friends, and dope-smoking. That latter one seems a staple of romantic comedies these days, even mainstream ones. I’m not terribly moralistic about such things (well, not today at least), just bored and can’t relate to it personally.

 

I also found elements of the film confusing or ridiculous. There’s no way you’d be asked to teach a class without being first informed that it’s for first-grade students. Then again, why the fuck are five year-olds being taught film? Even romantic comedies need to be somewhat grounded. Meanwhile, the big sex scene in the film is confusingly handled. It’s partly due to the incompetent choice of too many close-ups to work out the geography of everything (Note to filmmakers: Whether I’m a pervert or not, no one wants a sex scene focussing mostly on faces except when they’re kissing, OK?). It’s also partly because it appears to be two sex scenes inter-spliced. The whole film has flashbacks, and the film doesn’t bother to set it up, you’re left to work out where we are in the story yourself. I was eventually able to do that, but I don’t think it was the best or most necessary of narrative choices. It’s a rookie mistake that could’ve probably been avoided if the filmmaker had spoken to someone outside of her inner circle to make sure everything checks out. The ending completely sucks too, Akhavan seems to think a simple smile is good enough. It’s not (I get the point, but it’s still not good enough), the film has barely gone anywhere leading up to the moment, and we barely even get a conclusion at all. Maybe the writer/director/star was just as indecisive as her character and never quite got around to arriving at an actual point, let alone knowing how to end it.

 

A ‘meh’ indie romcom that seems to think being about an Iranian-American bisexual is enough of a difference to make it something worthwhile. It’s not (in fact it plays a lot like every lesbian-themed romance/relationship movie that came along in the mid to late 90s), though Ms. Akhavan might just have a career in front of the camera at the very least. I’d entrust someone else to come up with the material, however. Much ado about nothing here, and the terrible title seems to have no bearing on anything in the film except perhaps in the broadest sense.

 

Rating: C