'Rubber' Doesn't Try to Reinvent the Wheel

"Rubber" is an independent French film written and directed by Quentin Dupieux. It has been screened at numerous film festivals to mixed reviews. Jacob Hall of CHUD.com calls "Rubber" one of the smartest films of the year, while Sukhdev Sandhu of the Telegraph says the film was "an hour too long." Both reviewers have points.

Even if you just read the description of "Rubber," it sounds smart and inventive, and sets itself up as a movie that you expect to be about something larger. A telekinetic tire named Robert realizes he has the power to kill a rabbit, then a crow, then a person, and chooses to continue to exercise that power. This sounds like it has the makings of a larger morality play or a grandiose commentary on society. The question is, after it's over, does "Rubber" still make you feel that way?

A Tire Is Born

The film starts off promisingly enough with lead character Lieutenant Chad emerging from a police cruiser trunk and being handed a glass of water before introducing a crowd of movie buffs to the idea that there are films that exist for "no reason." E.T. was brown for "no reason" and the characters in "Love Story" fell in love for no reason. Unfortunately, this set-up lasts for a bit too long and becomes an overshare evocative of the "Ways to Survive a Horror Movie" sequence in the original "Scream" did.

Shortly after Chad leaves, Robert the rubber tire emerges. Visions of Dr. Seuss' classic work "Are You My Mother" are brought to mind as the intrepid piece of rubber awakens and begins to piece out exactly what existence is. He can move, he can feel, and he can make organic objects and tin cans explode. After all, what else can a telekinetic rubber tire be good for in a movie that seeks to establish plot points for "no reason"?

An Altered Apex

The back and forth between the movie buffs ends up providing much of the humor in the early part of the movie, but the actual cast of the film within a film ends up with the best lines, which actually illustrates one of the more unique aspects of the screenplay. Instead of reaching a serious apex near the final scene of the film and then wrapping it up with a speedy conclusion, "Rubber" actually features one of the highest points of the film at about the halfway mark. On one hand this accentuates the point of the movie, but on the other it makes it seem a great deal longer than the approximate 80 minutes it is.

A Method to the Madness

"Rubber" trips itself up with this altered apex and in a few other scenes that take its "no reason" premise too seriously, but for the most part it is quite effective at establishing the fact that motion pictures require average viewers to accept scenes, dialogue and actions with little or no relation to what reasonable people would do in the same situation. "Rubber" did this with an artful flair that avoided dipping too far into cliches, though it came a bit close with a quick scene of gratuitous backside nudity.

While the movie seems to run on a little bit too much and stumbles when it overemphasizes a point, it is largely entertaining. "Rubber" would best be appreciated by those with an appreciation for "B" horror films and a love for their weaknesses. The real food for thought in "Rubber" lies here.