Review: Drama

Raw Power: Ewan McGregor in Velvet Goldmine

Premise: The rise and fall of rock icon Brian Slade/Maxwell Demon (based largely on David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust), as told 10 years after his disappearance

Pitch: D.A. Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars meets Citizen Kane.

Pedigree: The biggest film yet from Todd Haynes (Poison, Safe), a director known for doing only exactly what he wants, and powerhouse producer Christine Vachon. Both the cast and soundtrack are pure indie A-list.

Verdict: While the media's breathless prophecies of a glam-rock revival aren't likely to bear out, it's easy to wish they would after taking in Velvet Goldmine's lush, exuberant vision of the era. Backed by enough research for a Ph.D. thesis, the erudite Haynes plays fast, loose and fun with the facts about an intensely subversive (and therefore all too brief) movement; his glam scene is full of references and parallels to history, vividly re-imagined to suit his own story.
Told from the vantage point of an overtly Orwellian 1984, journalist Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) is pulled back into his own past while trying to find out what happened to the pop star he once idolized: the Bowie-esque Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who sank into obscurity 10 years earlier, after faking his death onstage. Borrowing Citizen Kane's flashback structure, the film charts the star's rise and fall as Stuart interviews Slade's first manager (Michael Feast) and ex-wife, Mandy (Toni Collette). Eventually, he tracks down Slade's great amour, Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor), a kind of Iggy Pop/Lou Reed hybrid. While there's something off-kilter about actors playing rock stars, McGregor (looking uncannily like Kurt Cobain) seizes his role and does it up with out-of-control aplomb.
Nineteen-year-old Rhys-Meyers, radiating intensity and attitude more than emotion, is perfect as an ultimately vacant icon. On one level, Velvet Goldmine is a fantastically frothy musical. Its songs, set design and costumes are stunning; not just the glam rockers, but also the looks cobbled together by fans without the benefit of AmEx or Urban Outfitters. Buried beneath the film's sensual treasures, however, is a trove of other themes: the rock star/fan relationship, the liberating art of artifice, the value of mystery over truth. In short, as its name suggests (besides the allusion to a certain female organ), Velvet Goldmine is that rare film that merits more than one viewing.

Background: Although some numbers are lip-synced, both McGregor and Rhys-Meyers sing three songs apiece. According to David Bowie's wishes, none of his songs were used in the film.