Auto Focus [2003] DVD

WARNING - POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!

Auto Focus is a weird, quirky and somewhat offbeat film. It's one of those movies that is destined not to do big box office, but deserves to.

When I first heard of it via an online review I was a little sceptical and took a leap of faith in buying the DVD. I'm glad I did. Auto Focus is a one off. It's one of those films that defies categorisation and mixes styles and genres cleverly, but without ramming anything down your throat.

Auto Focus is largely a drama - a character driven piece about the life of US TV sitcom king Bob Crane, star of the US German POW comedy 'Hogan's Heroes'. The film is essentially a biography of his life, picking up from his initial rise to stardom and then charting his fall from grace and eventual unsolved murder.

Greg Kinnear plays Crane in what may one day be considered a career best performance (even better than his turn as the gay neighbour in As Good As It Gets). Kinnear's take on Crane depicts a talented man very much in love with life and with a happy-go-lucky attitude. It becomes clear though, as the film progresses, that his character and charm is rooted in naivety and an inability to understand where to draw the line. In fact, with repeat viewings one can begin to see the multi-facteted nature of Kinnear's performance. There are visual ticks and the overly endearing, comedic nature of his outward persona hides the deeply troubled, flawed personality within. 

The issues explored here are not initially obvious. What we essentially have is a man addicted to sex. Crane becomes embroiled in a salubrious, explicit and seedy world of casual encounters when he hooks up with his partner in crime Carpy, played here by the brilliant Willem Dafoe. The two men become dependent on each other and this is one relationship that you just know is heading for destruction.

There is first rate acting here not just from the two charismatic leads but also from some of the lesser-known actors, such as Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks' wife) as the increasingly alienated and troubled Mrs. Crane who can do little but look on as her life, marriage and husband fall apart.

Auto Focus is essentially a study, analysis or atomisation of the disintegration of a life. And what's great about it is that it works on every level, so that when the final credits roll, (despite the bleak ending), you get a very satisfied feeling that you've watched a triumph of a film. It is not a masterpiece though - just a very accomplished piece of filmmaking. And one gets the feeling that, with the passage of time, this is one of those films that most likely will grow in stature as it is reappraised by future generations of film lovers.

Stylistically the film works too. At the beginning we are thrown into a 60's whirlwind of quirky music and stylish interiors. The 60's theme is great in that it hovers between 'Bewitched' and Austin Powers although unlike Powers, it stays just enough this side of the line of believable not to fall into parody. The opening titles are very much in keeping with bright, brash, flash titles of film and TV of that time, tinged with the slight menance of the sexual corruption to come. In fact, the titles reminded me of those used in the recent Catch Me If You Can only these are bawdier. Again, the inclusion of sexual iconography in the opening titles could have been overdone, but fortunately stays subtle enough not to spoil the tone of the film.

What becomes more apparent, more clear, as the film wears on is that this is fundamentally a story of the 60's and 70's itself - a decade that started off bright, flashy, hopeful and full of promise and ended in a miasma of sex, drugs, rock and roll, permisiveness, assasinations, race riots, Vietnam and a societal loss of innocence. And so, the tale of Crane is the tale of 60's and 70's America. His dysfunctional and increasingly erratic behaviour mirroring the paroxysms of the very society in which he lived, politically and socially. 

And this can be seen again in the style of photography. The first part of the film is a kaleidoscope of bright, primary colours that jump off the screen. The colours are rish and lush and the transfer to DVD must be marked out as a glittering success. Then, as the film wears on, and Crane's life and career fragment, the colours become more muted and garish. Styles, patterns and colours clash and this mirrors the on-screen disintegration of Crane. Eventually, the film stock used is washed out, overexposed and tinged with greens and greys. This, accompanied with the shakiness of hand-held camera work gives a very visual and physical emphasis. The cinematography and style as a whole charts the course, throughout the film, of the self-destructive path of a human being.

The DVD is a triumph and you would probably be hard pushed to find another DVD of this quality in a single disc edition. What you get is the film plus 3 - yes count them - 3 commentaries. These are all enjoyable to listen to and hugely informative.

There's also a very absorbing documentary that is around an hour in length and provides a background to the life of Bob Crane, focusing heavily on his murder and the subsequent investigation into it.

I don't even need to say that this is an undiscovered gem and would wholeheartedly recommend Auto Focus to just about anyone who only likes with happy endings. It ticks that most important of boxes for films of quality and intelligence in that you can watch it again and again and learn or perceive something new from it each time. The real stars of the show are Kinnear, Dafoe and director Paul Schrader. If all directors, producers and film fans could see Kinnear in action in Auto Focus, one imagines he would be a much bigger box office star than he is now.

Auto Focus gets;

9/10.

Auto Focus Official Site
Up close on 'Auto Focus'  with Greg Kinnear
Up close on 'Auto Focus' with Paul Schrader
Bob Crane's blurry past
BobCrane.com