Grief Movie Review

Horrible production values and some of the most stilted acting I've ever seen pretty much sink Grief completely -- and that's in the first two minutes, before we even get to the opening credits. The next 79 minutes don't offer much else in the way of memorable filmmaking, plot, or performance, either.

Bonus points for putting a few capable actors like Illeana Douglas and Lucy Gutteridge (who hasn't made a film since) in the mix, but it would've been much brighter to craft a movie around someone like one of them instead of the talent-free drag queen Kent Fuher (channeling Divine). Oh, the story? It's all about the high drama on the set of The Love Judge, a tawdry court-based soap opera, complete with office romances, authority issues, and copier trouble. When boss Jo (Fuher) announces she's moving abroad, there's a power grab for her job. But the bulk of the story concerns gay writer Mark (Craig Chester), who's distraught over work and home life and threatening to jump off the building when he's not providing "witty" voice-over for the movie.

It's shoddily thrown together, but as it's Richard Glatzer's first feature (he's only made one since, The Fluffer, eight years later) some of his mistakes are forgivable. That doesn't make Grief worth watching for much beyond its novelty value (watch for the inimitable Paul Bartel as a show-inside-the-movie performer!), but if Fuher and Alexis Arquette are the cult favorites the DVD box says they are, then I'm sure someone's going to want to watch this thing.