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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
March 24 - March 30, 2005 Edition
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FILM The pleasures of snooping March 24, 2005 By Brooks Robards
Released in 2003, “Nosey Parker” completes what independent filmmaker John O'Brien calls his Tunbridge Trilogy. Tunbridge, Vermont is O'Brien's hometown; the earlier films are “Vermont Is for Lovers” (1992) and “Man With a Plan” (1996). For those unfamiliar with the term, a Nosey Parker is a snoop or a busybody, and O'Brien's film has a town full of them. As the film starts, the Connecticut couple Natalie and Richard Newman, played by Natalie Picoe and Richard Snee who are also married in real life, have just moved into their dream house in Tunbridge. He's a 50-something psychiatrist and she's a 30-something amateur photographer. It's time for the listers, Vermont's quaint name for tax assessors, to appraise the property. Three of them - playing themselves - show up on the spur of the moment to give the Newman's house the once-over. Much of the pleasure of independent filmmaking comes in the avoidance of the canned and overworked recipes used by Hollywood. O'Brien operates without script or storyboard, setting down a basic outline and scenes for his actors, then letting them improvise the dialogue. The result gives a spontaneous, real-life feel to situations and conversation. It's a pleasure to hear people talk to each other in a way that sounds natural rather than like a TV reality show. As the three Tunbridge listers wander through the Newman's state-of-the-art home, complete with gold-plated faucets, granite counters, Jacuzzi and mirrored workout room, George Lyford is the one who most often pokes his head where he shouldn't. He checks out the medications on the bathroom countertop, picks up the vibrator left on the unmade bed, pulls a bra out the laundry shoot, scans the nude photos in the darkroom. He also charms a lonely Natalie enough that she hires him to serve as the couple's handyman. Soon George is scrubbing the Newman's Jacuzzi, sharing confidences and cigarettes in the garden with Natalie, and taking her for a ride on his tractor. As the plot meanders slowly along, O'Brien interweaves shots of the Vermont countryside in full autumn splendor and archival glimpses of Tunbridge history. The technique may make the movie feel a little like a sophisticated home movie, but it creates a dead-on blend of scenery and subject. These flatlanders and Vermonters reveal each other's quirks and foibles with gentle, tongue-in-cheek humor. When Natalie raves about his antique tools, George tells her he must be an “antique farmer.” Meanwhile, Natalie introduces George to the pleasures of pomegranates. The closest thing to conflict comes when Natalie's husband, Richard, starts to get jealous of George. Tunbridge's telephone grapevine heats up as all kinds of fabrications about what goes on at the Newmans' pass from one gossiper to the next. And when the johnny-come-less-latelies start complaining about how the Newman's house is spoiling their views, Tunbridge sounds like Chilmark or West Tisbury. O'Brien's low-key humor works so well because the actors take their characters by the scruff of their necks and bring them alive. Natalie often comes across as a latter-day Annie Hall, while George, with brown eyes as big as a Bassett hound's, matches her wit in every scene - even though she's a professional actor and he's just playing himself. If Fred Tuttle, the octogenarian farmer who runs for Congress in “Man With a Plan” and plays a cameo in “Nosey Parker,” has endeared himself to moviegoers, George, who regrettably died before the film was released, will also steal your heart. Christopher Guest of “Saturday Night Live” has taken film comedy in an invigorating new direction with the mocumentary franchise that produced “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Best in Show,” and “A Great Wind.” John O'Brien has given it a sly and deceptively mellow twist. “Nosey Parker” will provide a perfect ending for the Agricultural Society's celebration of the arrival of spring on Saturday evening. All are welcome - not just members. There is no admission other than bringing a dish for six. The social hour at the Ag Hall in West Tisbury begins at 6 pm; the movie is scheduled to start at 8 pm. The film and its projection are provided by the Silver Screen Film Society. |
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