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The dark half
Auto Focus has clever moments but no real characters to empathise with
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Aseem Chhabra
Paul Schrader's films, whether scripted or directed by him, have often focused on the dark side of lonely and deeply disturbed characters. Travis Bickel (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver, or Jake LaMotta (De Niro) in Raging Bull, or Julian Kaye (Richard Gere) in American Gigolo. In fact, Schrader is the only scriptwriter who has dwelled into the human side of Jesus Christ in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ.
In his new film Auto Focus, Schrader takes on one more challenge, exploring the sexual addiction of Bob Crane, the handsome, charming star of the hit show Hogan's Heroes. Set in a German prison camp, the show was taken off the air in 1971. But it can still be seen on one of those late night comedy cable channels that cater to the insomniac children of the 1960s.
Crane is earnestly played with a gee-wiz kind of an expression by Greg Kinnear, an actor better known for his light comic performances in Sabrina, As Good As It Gets and You've Got Mail. The role is a vast departure for Kinnear, who started his career with Talk Soup on E! Entertainment Television, a daily dose of hilarious commentaries (though sometimes bordering on a condescending tone) of other talk shows, especially the ones bored housewives watch during the day.
Kinnear's Crane moves around with an 'I am clueless' look, while --- as one would expect from a biopic of this nature --- the world around him collapses because of his destructive behaviour.
The problem with Kinnear's Crane is that it is very hard to like him or care for him. In the history of American television, Crane was a marginal character. He never did anything significant after Hogan's Heroes closed down. All of this makes it hard to appreciate a movie that is otherwise very well made and at times quite engrossing.
Auto Focus, written by Michael Gerbosi, is based on a book The Murder Of Bob Crane by Raymond Graysmith. Schrader claimed he had written more than 50 per cent of the script, but the arbitration board of the Writers' Guild believed differently. So Schrader does not get credit for the script.
Auto Focus begins with Crane a hit radio jockey who has a picture perfect life, a loving wife Anne (Rita Wilson), three children (Crane's son Bob Crane Jr is a consultant for the movie and also makes a small cameo appearance) --- and a suburban house with a small driveway. Sundays are spent with the family and in church. Crane is an ambitious man. He moved his family from Connecticut to Los Angeles, for his radio show. He has had some success on television -- The Donna Reed Show, where he played Dr. Dave Kelsey, but he wants more.
But something is wrong with this model picture of Americana. Anne seems dissatisfied in the marriage. Later, we learn she has occasionally found pornographic magazines hidden in their garage. Crane dismisses the matter. He is interested in photography, he says, hence the magazines with pictures of naked women. "I am a one-woman man," is a line Crane says throughout the film.
Once Hogan's Heroes becomes a hit, fame propels Crane to another level and life starts to go haywire. Young women are constantly asking him for autographs and Crane starts spending more and more evenings out of home, hanging out at strip joints and later even playing drums at these establishments.
Crane is accompanied in this slow and destructive journey with a new friend John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe, in an amazing, sleazy performance). Carpenter is supplier of video and hi-fi equipment to small-time stars (although he claims that Elvis Presley is one of his clients).
The bizarre friendship between the two, with hints of latent homosexuality, leads them through sexual orgies (carefully shot so that Auto Focus can work within the range of an R rating), and long nights of video shoots and edits.
Schrader has said he wanted to treat Crane and Carpenter's tale in Auto Focus as a heterosexual version of Prick Up Your Ear, Stephen Frear's 1987 film about the violent relationship between the two gay writers, Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. But Orton and Halliwell had a strong bond and an emotional dependence that inspired each other's creativity. The depth of Auto Focus and its connection between its two lead male characters never quite reaches that level of sincerity.
Carpenter enters Crane's life about the time the video revolution is about to start. Schrader does a wonderful job of capturing the birth of a new technology, bulky video cameras, reel-to-reel tapes, followed by Beta tapes. There are wires and large ugly television sets that sit in basements where Crane and Carpenter sit and watch video replays of them performing sexual acts with different women.
As Crane's life starts heading into a downward spiral, the scenes in the film get cluttered with more and more video camera wires. And before we know it, Schrader and his director of photography Fred Murphy start to play a trick on us. The film stock in the last half an hour of Auto Focus is overexposed to give the sense of urgency and desperation in Crane's life.
The supporting cast is strong from Wilson to Maria Bello, who plays Crane's second wife Patricia (the real life Patricia has filed a law suit against film for its portrayal of her character). And Ed Begley Jr who actually acted with Crane in the 1974 Disney film Superdad, makes a cameo appearance as a Jewish reporter.
Auto Focus often has clever moments and Murphy's script maintains a wit despite the film's subject matter. But with no real characters to empathise with, the film leaves the viewers feeling cold and dissatisfied.
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