 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
THE FIRST DATE
Produced, Directed, Written, and Edited by Anthony SpadacciniTrevor - Nate Edwards
Angelina - Melissa Torrence
Tyrone - Jeff
Bunny - Denise Smiley
Lucy - Judy - BuckleyWhen I was a child, I used to watch the silent Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Keystone Cops shorts that would often play on Sunday afternoon on D.C.'s local ABC station and what is now a local FOX affiliate (then independent). Sadly, I don't believe I've seen any of those shorts since sometime in the late 1980's, and I can't remember them as vividly as I would like. From what I remember, Anthony Spadaccini's short film THE FIRST DATE, molded after those silent masterpieces, has the formula and look down pat, but he's short on the charm.
We find Trevor in his bed as he's just waking up. He clad in a Chaplin-esque nightshirt that's 5 sizes too big. He wrestles with his covers, trying to escape their grasp. The opening shot holds the scene for nearly a minute before the first title card informs us that Trevor has the day off and intends to go to the park. Long takes, dead center composition, music that sounds as if it's coming straight from one of those old pianos whose keys pluck themselves to the tune set forth by tubular drums of pocked music notes. Even the dainty, exaggerated sped-up mugging of our hero looks as if it could have come directly from the 1920's.
Then the movie gets weird, for lack of a better term. Trevor pulls up to the park in his SUV. Of course I expected a Model T, or rather I hoped for one. The effect of such blatant modernization in such a classical filmic aesthetic instantly alters the feel from homage to gimmicky surrealism. The off-putting approach is repeated whenever Spadaccini references anything else modern, such as a gawker sported frosted tips. The poor fellow looks 80 years out of place, and I, as a viewer, was left wondering why in the world was such a choice made by the director.
Despite these flaws, which admittedly aren't so much flaws as they are personal preferences on my part, Nate Edwards, as Trevor, displayed so much comic good nature and made up for anything lacking. He's an angel's food cake in a sea of Twinkies, even if his entire performance is cribbed straight from the Chaplin handbook right down to the little tramps running style and pratfalls.
Trevor is a dork who fancies himself a ladies man. Any sexual prowess he thinks he has is only in mind, and his "game" is that he has no game. When Trevor finds a lovely lady sitting next to him, his first thought is to strip off his shirt; he'll woo her with his dazzling masculinity and muscles - if he had either. He struts his bare birdchest like a peacock with a series of bodybuilder poses that result in ridicule rather than rapture. If there ever was a point in time where Edwards was channeling the departed soul of Chaplin, it's the moment he first flexes his non-existent biceps in a sequence equal to anything Chaplin ever did with the possible exception of the shoe-eating dinner scene in Gold Rush.
Through a series of comic misadventures, Trevor not only scores a date with the object of his affection, but he talks her into coming over to his house. His stammering is so apparent that no title cards are needed, but one featuring his stuttering would have been the perfect joke. If you've ever viewed a series of silent shorts, you know what happens next. The fool chases off the girl only for her to give him a second chance. Classic silent two-reelers reflected a naïve optimism when it came to love, and Spadacinni understands his element all to well. He even underscores this component and carries it to the extreme by having a supporting character, a car-jacking purse thief, find love with the victim of his botched first attempt at kidnapping.
THE FIRST DATE is an excellent genre exercise that knows all the beats of a bygone cinematic era, but in the end it feels hollow. We've seen it all before, but even that can be overlooked since the genre being explored is one that originated with 2-dimensional archtypes. What can't be is the waffling tone that stems from an uneven production design. Most of the movie has a timeless feel, but once any signifier of the 21st century makes it to screen the effect is disorienting and removes viewers from an otherwise nostalgia-filled homage.