Very Bad Things

Dir: Peter Berg

1998

***

Peter Berg’s 1998 dark comedy Very Bad Things wasn’t successful upon release and it was looked down upon for its mean-spirit and overall reprehensibility – the things I liked most about it. It is dark and nasty but to be honest I found it to be rather refreshing, especially given that butter-wouldn’t-melt big names such as Cameron Diaz and Christian Slater were attached. For me it felt like an evil version of Seinfeld in that it featured mean-spirited and selfish people doing wrong and getting their comeuppance. That entertainment in my book. The story begins with Laura (Cameron Diaz) and Kyle (Jon Favreau) discussing their forthcoming wedding and we get the idea that she is becoming somewhat obsessed with it. Kyle needs a bit of time out and organises a trip to Las Vegas for him and his buddies Charles (Leland Orser), Robert (Christian Slater), brothers Adam and Michael (Daniel Stern and Jeremy Piven) to enjoy a bachelor party. Even though Laura says she will allow Kyle to take cocaine on the trip, you can tell she’s apprehensive of the trip, especially as Robert tends to lead the others astray. The men arrive and enjoy a night of drugs, drink and gambling before heading to their luxury hotel room for a late night party. Unbeknownst to the others, the highly-strung Michael brings up a prostitute and has rough sex with her in the bathroom. Unfortunately the sex is a little too rough and Michael accidentally impales her skull on a clothes hook on the back of the door. Soon thereafter, a security guard comes to investigate the ruckus and discovers Tina's corpse. In desperation, Robert stabs the guard to death. Boyd convinces the group to dismember the bodies, bury them in the desert, and never speak of it again. After Vegas at the rehearsal dinner, Adam cracks under the pressure, leading to a confrontation with Michael outside. The fight is broken up and Michael is convinced to leave. While leaving, he tries to ram his jeep into Adam's beloved minivan but Adam runs in front of his van to try and stop him and is crushed in the collision. In the hospital, Adam whispers something to his wife Lois (Jeanne Tripplehorn) before dying, as Robert looks on through a glass window. Lois demands answers about what happened in Las Vegas. Kyle makes up a story about Adam sleeping with a prostitute. Robert, suspecting she does not believe them, kills Lois. Later, Robert calls Kyle and Charles to bring Michael to the house, where he kills him. He concocts a story about a Michael/Lois/Adam love triangle to answer any interrogation by police. After these events and being named beneficiary of Adam and Lois' estate, Kyle breaks down and confesses the story to Laura, who demands that the wedding she has dreamed about proceed as planned. On the wedding day, Robert confronts Kyle, demanding the money from Adam's life insurance policy. Kyle refuses and a fight ensues which ends with Laura bludgeoning Robert. During the ceremony, Kyle and Charles realize that Robert has the wedding rings. Charles goes to retrieve them, opening a door that knocks Robert down a stairwell where he dies. Laura demands Kyle bury Robert's body in the desert and then ensure no loose ends remain by killing Charles. Ultimately, Kyle cannot go through with the act and as he drives home, he loses focus and crashes into an oncoming car. After the collision, Kyle has had both his legs amputated below the knee and Charles is brain damaged and confined to a motorized wheelchair, leaving Laura to care for all of them in addition to raising Adam's sons. As Laura watches Fisher's futile attempt to control the two boys, she realizes her life and dreams are totally ruined and suffers a nervous breakdown as she runs out of the house and collapses screaming in the street. It is funny, shocking and farcical, and very dark indeed. I can see why many people didn’t enjoy it but I liked it for its individuality. The late 90s hit a bit of a wall when it came to cinema, Europe was making great cinema but America and the UK were stuck a little following certain hits that were impossible to replicate – even though everyone was desperately trying. The Blockbuster Video bargain bin is were many of the overlooked independent gems were found and I would argue that they have aged better than many of the classics. Christian Slater was a great villain and Cameron Diaz was superb as the obsessed and crazed bride-to-be. Favreau, Stern and Piven were great character actors and Orser, who had played quite a few ‘innocent’ killers in the 90s, was perfect for the role of sympathetic ‘other guy’. It was overlooked because the mainstream critics couldn’t take a bit of nasty, even though cinema really needed some at that point in the decade. It didn’t help that Slater, who we see drinking, taking drugs and murdering people, had only just finished rehabilitation after assaulting his then girlfriend under the influence of drink and drugs, it doesn’t sit well but it is still fiction. It’s one hell of a debut anyway and I’m not sure I’ve really liked Peter Berg as much since. Weird to think Adam Sandler was nearly Jeremy Piven’s character, that would have interesting to see.