In Jonathan Watson’s directorial debut, Arizona is set in the fictional town of Harding, Arizona in 2009, just after the Housing Crisis of 2005-2006.
Real estate agent Cassie (Rosemary DeWitt) is failing to sell homes despite the ever-attractive large square footage of each property, and the customizable pools. In a desperate attempt to help the population grow, realtors are having the dead lawns spray painted green to make the abandoned homes with boarded windows feel like “home.” This struggling suburb is the perfect setting for the murderous spree that will take place in the span of less than 24 hours.
The desolate exterior of Harding echoes the nightmare that is Cassie’s life. She is a single mother of 14-year-old daughter Morgan (Lolli Sorenson), who couldn’t care less about her mother, and constantly compares Cassie to the high pedestal she has placed her father on. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Scott (Luke Wilson), is enjoying his new and exciting relationship with his young girlfriend Kelsey (Elizabeth Gillies). Cassie is six months behind on her mortgage and her boss, Gary (Seth Rogen), continues to criticize her low sales, even suggesting that she show more cleavage to sell more houses.
It seems that life cannot get much lower for her until Sonny (Danny McBride) busts through the door in a fit of rage and sinks Cassie into a new pit of despair. After Sonny’s heated and physical argument with Gary goes awry, Sonny imprisons Cassie in his house until he can figure out what to do with this witness. Unwillingly, she becomes entrenched in the chaos as Sonny’s murder count continues to grow, and his grasp on reality begins to fade. So begins the story of “idiot man turned idiot murderer” who consistently fumbles in covering up his original murder.
Watson creates an ominous tone throughout the film using aerial shots of the cookie cutter houses revealing only emptiness and plays with color by using more earth-toned yellows and reds to create an eerie, upset feeling throughout the film. The script, written by Luke Del Tredici, has strong moments for each character individually; Sonny’s constant paranoia that everyone is belittling him leads to his uncontrollable fits of rage, while Cassie struggles to keep her life afloat but still turning away help. However, these stakes for the characters become too large and transforms them into caricatures, which doesn’t bode well for this dark comedy.
It struggles to consistently balance thrilling moments with dark comedy, which may leave the audience wanting and expecting more from a film with such promise.
The premise seems strong but a lack of strong direction ultimately weakens the plot and overall storytelling. McBride’s Sonny vacillates between being a good man and wanting justice for being wronged and deceived, but it never feels completely realized. The direction relies heavily on McBride being his larger-than-life persona throughout the duration of the film, which may be difficult for the modern audience to connect with. DeWitt’s Cassie has excellent range and is given so much of a backstory to work with, but lacks an arc or growth until the very last scene. She is utilized as a passive part of the narrative, even a prop, until her call to action. For example, in the height of the climax, Cassie takes off her shirt to punch through a window so to not to get cut by the glass, but then never puts the shirt back on and finishes the film in her bra. At that moment, she becomes a beautiful prop for men to ogle at and her growth as a strong, fierce woman and mother takes a backseat. The stakes for each character feel forced and are hard to accept and buy into as an audience. Since there isn’t an established connection to help the audience relate, how can one expect to join the characters on this journey or care about the outcome of the protagonist?
Weak narrative choices leave the characters to be interpreted ambiguously by the viewer and create an inconsistent tone for the entirety of the film. In the beginning, Sonny was established as a brute moron who accidentally murdered someone and didn’t know how to get out of the mess. By the end of the film, he was outwitting Cassie and seemed to be steps ahead of her at times. An example of this is when Cassie and Morgan escape his imprisonment and take a car. As they near the exit of the cul-de-sac, Sonny is there in a guard uniform. This left me wondering how he was able to get there on foot before them, how he got a guard’s uniform, and how he was able to flawlessly pull this off when he had failed at being rational and reasonable throughout the film. As these questions were left unanswered, I was left frustrated as it seemed that I had to accept what had changed without the story showing or telling me how any of that had transpired.
Arizona shows great potential as it has interesting ideas and well-timed comedic moments, but lack of strong direction, strong narrative choice, and strong character development ultimately detract from the film and experience as the reveals and surprises are far too predictable. It struggles to consistently balance thrilling moments with dark comedy, which may leave the audience wanting and expecting more from a film with such promise.
85 minutes. ‘Arizona’ is not yet rated. Opens Friday, August 24th at Laemmle’s Monica Fourplex.
