LIGEIA

Although married to Rowena, Kieran (Martin S Davis) can't resist other women. Neglected by her husband's absences, Rowena (Bronwyn Davis) meets her ex boyfriend Bobby and awaits an affair of her own, but is shocked to find that Bobby has had a sex change. Overcoming her trepidation, Rowena begins a tender relationship with Bobby, while Kieran agonises over a deceased past love and obsesses over the ravenous Kelly (Masha Sappron). Completely under the thumb, Kieran is persuaded to kill Kelly's lover Bill, and draws the scrutiny of detective Fergusen (Robert Graham). Feeling compelled to kill Rowena, Kieran and his passions lead to a bloody climax and more than one fatality.

With a strange combination of slick exterior shots and cramped interiors, this LA based film promises to deliver adult drama but the results are as strained as a sufferer of constipation glued to a toilet seat. Although stripped of all superfluity - such as slick camerawork and Hollywood-massaged storylines - and proud of it, LIGEIA is stacked with repetitive dialogue and contrived situations that make it as recycled and lacking in imagination as the bigger budget films that its makers (and distributors) actively scorn. This, in fact, relates to the core of the film's story. Filled with jaded characters that thrive on role-play, it is rooted in familiar fictions such as the classic film noir device of the besotted man unable to resist the crime of passion, and seems geared into providing the next in a stream of tedious love scenes. Quite why Rowena would sleep with the sex changed Bobby after collapsing in shock at the revelation is never addressed and such jarring shifts in tone make the film more unconvincing than unpredictable.

Opting for a realistic aesthetic, director-writer Dave Lawler films in real buildings and locations to provide an authentic (if not lived in) feel, and uses such techniques as overlapping dialogue (characters who talk at the same time, as is often in real life, instead of the more deliberate rhythms of mainstream cinema) to seemingly reinforce this. Despite this, it feels more made-up than real, especially when Kelly does her jarring 'donkey laugh' during a dinner sequence, as well as the moment in which Detective Fergusen questions murder witnesses and potential suspects with the racket of a street musician in the background. This leads to an off-putting self-conscious approach, especially when the camera cuts away from the main frame of action (the crime scene) to the periphery (the musician) for some lingering medium shots. In all, it seems a pointless digression that does little for our appreciation of the film.

Alternating shock tactics, pillow talk and affectionate lesbo scenes, LIGEIA amounts to a posy series of crimes and misdemeanours, and could have done without the references to Edgar Allen Poe's short story. If Bronwyn Davis (as Rowena) and Martin S Davis (as Kieran) are hard to warm to, there are a pair of splendid characters who contribute to making the second half quite watchable. As Kelly, Masha Sappron is ravishing, and skilfully alternates duplicity with passion, but the real star of the show is Robert Graham as the crafty Detective Fergusen. Looking like a Christopher Walken impersonator dressed up as Williams Burroughs, the rule-breaking copper is somewhat underused but perfectly encapsulates the notions of pastiche and parody in a manner that is both funny and compelling.

The film benefits a clean enough transfer given the video format. Despite the boastful packaging of it being a stacked special edition, the only extra that reveals anything substantial about the production is the feature commentary. With Lawler, Knox (the film's producer and Rowena) and editor Scott Malley, the trio reveal that the snazzier location shots of LA are in fact stock footage, and enlighten us how Sappron's (as Kelly) kinky PVC 'cat suit' was chosen.

Review by Matthew Sanderson