Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Urge

Author(s): Douglas Reese
Location: Clarksville, Ohio

"The Urge"

Written and Directed by Todd Field
Produced by Dan Roos, Todd Field, and Lauren Collyer

Main Cast

Philip Seymour Hoffman ... Dr. Michael Burton
Thora Birch ... Marisa Estep
Maggie Gyllenhaal ... Paula Burton
Phyllis Somerville ... Cathy Estep
Jake Weber ... Dr. Peter Caldwell)

Tagline: "Her Words Make His Choices..."

Synopsis: She only had a few drinks and next thing Marisa (Thora Birch) knows is she is on her way down the road, picked up by a sinister shadow, and finds herself cuddled up next to the Ohio River, clothes missing, teeth knocked out, and knife cuts over her body. She cries down the road, trying to make it back home once a woman pulls over at the sight of Marisa's butchered body. Marisa goes berserk - screaming and punching. The woman calls the police and Marisa is arrested. They later find out about her rape, and Marisa's grandmother Cathy (Phyllis Somerville) begins a sort of overprotection of her daughter. But it turns ugly when Marisa discovers she is pregnant. Although Marisa wants to keep the child no matter who the father is ... Cathy wants Marisa to go through an abortion. "You're pregnant with the devil's child, can't you see that?" she tells Marisa.

Simultaneously, Dr. Michael Burton (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an abortionist for the Cincinnati Memorial Hospital. He has a loving wife Paula (Maggie Gyllenhaal) at home, but things begin to get hard on Burton once Paula becomes pregnant. Burton's family at a Christmas get-together only makes for worse to Paula when she overhears Burton's mother talking about her: "She was a tramp back before they married, she's using Mike that's all and she's probably knocked by some hick off the street. He should giver 'her' an abortion." Paula leaves the party with the car. Mike has to get a ride from his brother.

Burton's next patient on December 26 is 17-year-old Marisa Estep. And during the abortion, Burton listens to Marisa as she talks about how she became pregnant, how she doesn't really want the operation done, and how a baby needs a mother no matter how evil the father was. "I was raped," she tells him, her first words. "I'm sorry." "I am too." Once the chemical abortion is complete, Burton leaves the room, leaving Marisa behind, he takes off his gown and lies it one the floor ... walking out the door and leaving everything behind him.

What the Press would say:

Todd Field's haunting "Urge" is a powerful study of the jolting results of abortion done with its richly dark screenplay and its authentic underplayed performances. Bringing a moody drama to the screen, Field directs Philip Seymour Hoffman as the title character Michael Burton, expressing his emotions so well when his realizations begin to bottle up inside of him. The last scene, a long shot of him walking out of the hospital is a moving and powerful sequence and the expressions made through Hoffman's face are completely believable and quite intriguing. As his wife Paula, Maggie Gyllenhaal shows her great range as she can be a happy wife one minute, and the next: wondering if she really is suitable a mother for Burton's child. In the other story, Marisa is given great vulnerability and bravura through Thora Birch's painful and uncomfortable performance. The opening scene where Maria wakes up next to the Ohio River, completely beaten, is extremely horrific through Birch's work and bravery to show the viewer how hurt Maria is. As her grandmother who goes against anything Marisa wants, Phyllis Somerville portrays Cathy through care, yet dissatisfaction of what her granddaughter really wants. Cathy believes she knows what's best for Marisa. Through these great performances and the wonderful direction and screenplay eerily written by Todd Field, and a memorable musical score by Thomas Newman make "The Urge" a moving journey into bruised lives and their urges and struggles to realize their true pains and how to patch them up and heal.

For Your Consideration:

Best Picture
Best Director - Todd Field
Best Original Screenplay
Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman
Best Actress - Thora Birch
Best Supporting Actress - Maggie Gyllenhaal
Best Supporting Actress - Phillis Somerville
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

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