Jaglom's '45 Minutes' Worth Your Time

By Michael Aushenker, Staff Writer

2009-11-05
Filmmaker Henry Jaglom has long been a polarizing figure. Critics either appreciate his rambling, heavily improvised dramedies, or they see him as something of a trust-fund baby with a camera: self-indulgent and amateurish. For others still, including this writer, he's both at once, making his work something of a guilty pleasure.

Now comes word that the veteran independent filmmaker behind such movies as 'Eating' and 'Irene in Time' has scripted a play 'Just 45 Minutes From Broadway,' now playing at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica. So how does his style translate to the stage? Quite well, actually.

Directed by Gary Imhoff and produced by Alexandria Guarnieri, 'Just 45 Minutes' centers on the Isaacs family, an extended Jewish family of actors experiencing tough economic times. The house quickly fills up with grown children coming home, including uptight older daughter Betsy (Julie Davis) and free spirit Pandora, a.k.a. Panda (Tanna Frederick).

Betsy, unlike Panda, has disconnected from her childhood spirit as an adult. She's the 'civilian' (non-actor) in the family, six years older than Panda, who does not consider herself unemployed as much as 'I'm at liberty right now.' An emotional firecracker just coming out of a four-year relationship, Panda is a raw nerve, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 'Being real is the final deal breaker,' Panda says, bursting into tears.

Betsy focuses much of her ire on her idealistic sister ('I had six wonderful years before you were born') but she also resents the quirkiness of her family, which includes the parents (played by Diane Salinger and Jack Heller). 'You can't have everyone running around emotionally naked,' Betsy shouts at them, lambasting their self-indulgence and eccentricities. 'I have tried to escape this my whole life.'

The tension thickens as Panda's emotional honesty''as well as that of the entire family''becomes attractive to Betsy's WASP-y fianc', Jimmy (David Garver), who grew up in a non-communicative home. At one point, Jimmy literally sides with the family, sharing his time (and their side of the stage) rather than with Betsy, isolated on the opposite side of the house (set and lighting beautifully designed by Joel Daavid).

'Just 45 Minutes' follows familiar stage-play formula, pitting an uptight family member against a clan of eccentrics/neurotics. Recent examples include 'House of Blue Leaves' downtown and two Theatre Palisades productions, 'Lost in Yonkers' and 'You Can't Take It With You.'

Likewise, viewers will find Jaglom-movie tropes, such as opinionated female characters offering soliloquies ripe with observations on life and love, and the pretentious inclusion of Charles Tr'net's 'La Mer' on the soundtrack.

But this is not a major criticism of the play, which feels tighter and more structured than the average Jaglom film. And the production is well cast. Garver is outstanding as Jimmy. Davis shines as the serious Betsy. Heller, as patriarch George, comically quotes De Gaulle and parses the effectiveness of Ambien ('The Ambien won't work if it's buried in eggs!'). He pores over the obits in Variety, deems Skype a 'horrible, intrusive futuristic invention,' and believes there was an actual Fric and Frac ('They're Swiss!'). As George's rival, brother-in-law Larry, David Proval provides much comedy relief and delivers a poignant moment in which he notes that the actors he came up with, Bobby DeNiro and Dusty Hoffman, have surpassed him career-wise. 'The cards just weren't dealt to me,' he reflects ruefully. 'I morphed into this character actor.'

The play relies on the audience's intelligence to understand the references, whether it's Boris Thomashefsky or when Larry talks about portraying Benny Southstreet in 'Guys and Dolls' and wrings a laugh trying to convince others that 'It's a key part. The play sort of revolves around him.'

But the family dynamics receive their biggest jolt when some secrets come out into the fore.

'They fall in love with you, then they want to kill you!' George says of civilians. Likewise, if you've fallen for Jaglom's body of work rather than wanting to kill him for it, this play will not disappoint.

The play runs through December 20, except Thanksgiving weekend. Edgemar Center is located at 2437 Main St. Tickets: $25. Contact: 310-392-7327 or visit www.edgemarcenter.org.