Sorry, Haters | DVD Review

The emotional repercussions of the September 11th terrorist attacks are making their way to the forefront of American cinema from a place in the back of characters’ minds. While some are finally dramatizing the events themselves, others address the affecting impact the events had on people’s motivation and demeanor. SORRY, HATERS is of the latter category but instead of exploring the struggles to make sense of that day, it exploits those struggles. The film tells the story of Phoebe, a woman with a duplicitous personality and a life that was going nowhere until September 11th. On that day, she was no longer just a face among many because everyone’s status and ego was leveled to the same place. The psychology behind wanting to recreate a state of complete chaos in order to feel safe and needed is a fascinating one but it is not one that comes across clearly in this awkward mess of a film. The build is so bizarre and unnatural that it never allows the story that unfolds to congeal. What ends up on screen is an audacious transformation of anguish into an acceptable excuse for Phoebe’s psychotic tendencies.

Not surprisingly, SORRY, HATERS did not connect with audiences or critics when it was released to theatres. To listen to the feature commentary between writer/director (and pretentiously self-proclaimed provocateur) Jeff Stanzler and lead actress, Robin Wright-Penn, there must be something wrong with people for not understanding this film. The questions they bring up in the commentary are questions that ran through my mind while watching the film, most of which were regarding character motivations and story decisions. Stanzler rationalizes this backlash by chalking it up to people reading things too literally and not being open enough to the symbolic and metaphoric. I just feel he didn’t tell the story properly, assuming that the metaphoric significance that is only revealed in the later part of the film would justify the actions and scenarios in the first half, when really the whole just felt ludicrously implausible and uncomfortable. The only other DVD special feature is an IFC films round table discussion between a group of actors and producers. Having despised the film so much, I could not watch these people praise it, especially when I didn’t believe they would be saying anything positive if there weren’t cameras on them, especially considering IFC is distributing this film.

Sorry, but I hated SORRY, HATERS. (I couldn’t resist.)

Movie rating – 0.5

Disc Rating – 0