Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr, Ty Burrell,
Harris Yulin, Jane Alexander, Emmy Clarke
Produced by William Pohlad & Laura Bickford
Written by Erin Cressida Wilson
Certification US R | UK 15 | Australia MA15+
Runtime 120 minutes
Directed by Steven Shainberg
Fur, as the second bit of the title states, is An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. For most viewers that probably screams one thing: pretension alert! And they’d be right. Steven Shainberg and Erin Cressida Wilson — who previously teamed up for the controversial and thought-provoking Secretary — have taken a real situation and added a sprinkling of… well, fairy dust would be pushing it. Like their previous film, Fur rifles through the alternative side of life, and ends up part biopic, part Alice In Wonderland. Possibly as seen through the end of an absinthe bottle.
Diane Arbus, as you may be aware, was a photographer specialising, to some extent, in ‘freaks’. She endeavoured to make the normal look odd and the odd look normal. Shainberg’s film takes this end point and weaves a fictional narrative to try and explain how she arrived at it. Nicole Kidman plays Arbus, initially as doting housewife and mother, and an enthusiastic assistant to her photographer husband Alan (Ty Burr). His work is straightforward catalogue shoots of dresses and appliances, the sort of pre-kitsch style which, in a nice irony, is so imitated now. Arbus though shrugged off the ‘shackles’ off this life — an independent woman? In the 1950s? — and stepped out in her own right. The film looks at the events and characters that might have prompted this.
Or, more likely, didn’t, but it gives Shainberg and Wilson the opportunity to throw a few ideas around, starting with neighbour Lionel (Robert Downey Jr), a hypertrichosis sufferer and former freak show ‘attraction’: he’s really hairy, basically. Through her work with Lionel, Diane gets her artistic epiphany and her freedom. It’s a novel idea and at least with the three leads — particularly Burr — the film already has a lot going for it. However, Kidman just seems a little too wholesome to get under Arbus’ skin, particularly when side-by-side with Downey’s typically brilliant and enthusiastic performance. Sadly the film’s knowing eccentricity — a blend of Lynch-like darkness and Tim Burton-esque kookiness — feels laboured. A brave effort but not a terribly successful one.