Far Harbor Reviews

In this dreary debut feature by writer-director John Huddles, a group of eight friends gather at the waterfront country house of Ry and his emotionally disturbed wife Ellie (Jim True and Jennifer Connelly) for what's meant to be a weekend of relaxation, good food and friendly conversation. But no matter what they do, the conversation keeps circling back to an enormous yacht anchored directly offshore, rumored to belong to movie producer David Speckman. Speckman's presence has a particularly bad effect on the insufferably rude Frick (Edward Atterton), a failed filmmaker and Ellie's first husband. He proceeds to make the weekend pure, unadulterated hell for all concerned, including the unwary viewer. Speckman, of course, is obviously meant to read as Spielberg. But that's the only clear thing about this muddled, inside-joke of a film. So senseless it's almost -- but not quite -- surreal, its characters wander from room to room, engage one another in circular, noncommunicative conversations, and give no indication as to who they are or why they're friends. Simultaneously overwritten and underdeveloped, this ordeal-by-celluloid would love to be THE BIG CHILL of the '90s, but it more closely resembles some ungodly hybrid of Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD and Whit Stillman's METROPOLITAN.