"Pearls Before Swine" is a bit dull. I watched it last night a bit drunkish so I'm no doubt not making some connections between scenes and so on, but there's not a lot of connections to make, really.
There are some big problems with it. Firstly, the plot doesn't seem to exist much, except for a few connections to hang the scenes on. There's not so much plot holes for that reason, but a lot that's left out. We don't really know who's hiring the contract killers, why they want body parts, why they suddenly feel threatened by this cult-leader/writer. We don't really find out what this cult-leader wants to achieve, and his mostly silent appearance at the end explains nothing (I was thinking that even the most crass commercial films would have the evil genius super villain give some kind of speech explaining everything - that might have even had some humour potential). Since these things are the reason for the action in the film, it's a pretty big omission. Also, Rice's character's conversion to the cause is hardly explained, making the final scene almost like it was tacked on.
Secondly the script is, essentially, a series of scenes that, for the most part, are there to simply allow Rice or whomever to hold forth on philosophical matters. The plot seems to have been written around these monologues. It's all very detached and doesn't give the characters, such as they are, any depth. They are, for the most part, either just mouth-pieces for dialogue or walk-ons. A lot of the scenes don't have much to do with any ongoing plot, they're just there to give some flavour to the film as a whole. There was no need, for example, for the scene where Rice is buying old magazines and books apart from having a reason to have Douglas P. involved (his turn is reasonable, but it's only a short bit). The scene where Rice is dressed as a Nazi and his on-screen lover as a Jewish prisoner doesn't excite or incite, and the giggling and cuddling after a few swishes of the lash just make the whole thing seem a bit pointless. And allowing her to tag along to a hit? It's as if the film maker, Wolstencroft, didn't care enough about credibility to care if it was stretched or not.
There is, it must be stated, some decent dialogue in the movie, particularly the ribald banter between the contract killers, all nicely ocker and garish. And the actual philosophical rants are, on their own, thought provoking even if I don't agree with them.
Thirdly, the acting. Rice isn't an actor, and it seems all he has to do in this is be himself, albeit with a few murder and sex fantasies thrown in. The woman who plays his lover is an even more wooden actor and the few scenes of them together are really dreary (apart from the shower sex scene which looked quite okay, even though I don't care for soft-porn sex scenes in movies). When Rice is with the blokes who play his contract killer mates is where you really see his faults as an actor, compared with people who can, at least, put on a convincing turn. It's not that he's not doing his best, it's just that it isn't enough.
This goes back to the problem with the writing. You can't sympathise with the main character, and it looks like Wolstencroft didn't really care. There was potential in the scene where Rice visits a sick uncle in hospital to at least get some idea of the background of his character but that just falls flat (and makes me wonder how we're meant to believe that this character, with an Australian family, long time Australian mates and living in Australia has an American accent. It's not like it isn't possible, but it seems clumsy not to at least fill in some detail). Combined with Rice's amateur acting, his whole turn is just opaque and doesn't move.
The whole thing is just too bland and un-involving. It doesn't take much to join the dots I suppose, one doesn't need the reason for everything handed on a plate, but there's so much left out, or rather, not fleshed out, that it just comes across as all a bit empty and pointless. It's neither thought provoking on a philosophical level (anyone familiar with Rice's rhetoric would recognise what's here), on a shock level (unless you're someone who likes being offended), or on a basic level of enjoying a movie. It's a real pity, as the actual idea is good, and it could have been a good movie - if it had a decent plot and developed characters played by actors who can act.
