"The House of Yes" Please, May I Have Some More?
When Parker Posey debuted this film in 1997, along with three others, she quickly became the sweetheart of independent films. No one else had the gift for adapting such a stiffly written, complexly neurotic character to the screen with such finesse that she made the whole movie believable. Written and directed by Mark Water, the script is based in a Broadway Play where young Marty (Josh Hamilton) comes home from college for Thanksgiving with his fiancé (Tori Spelling) in tow. The existence of the fiancé was a shock for this upper-crust family, and causes a malevolent stir swirling around Marty's beautiful twin sister Jackie O (Posey). The family, which includes Freddie Prinze Jr. as the younger brother, dislikes the idea of the fiancé because she does not come from the same social sphere as they do, and yet there is something more.
Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Fred in Scooby-Doo.
English: Actor Freddie Prinze Jr In Comic-Con 2009...
Marty'sThere is a strange connection between Marty and Jackie O, the Kennedy Assassination and their missing father, and the imminent hurricane on its way to their New England home. While Jackie O's violent mental instability is without question as her mother rushes off to "hide the kitchen knives", the other characters flaws are not revealed until later.
Don't worry; I won't ruin it for you.
While some feel Water's script is pretentious and overly highbrow, I feel it is a breath of fresh air. There are no car chases, explosions, or Oscar Winners in this film, yet the dialogue is quick and witty, and the tension between the twins is palpable and gripping. With a surprise twist in the middle, I was unprepared for yet two more to come, and with that many "She said What?" moments, even the most jaded of movie-goers will have to...