Mania Grade: C+
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- Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
- Rated: R
- Stars: Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick Jr.
- Writer: Tracy Letts, based on his play
- Director: William Friedkin
- Distributor: Lionsgate
BUG
By Abbie Bernstein
May 25, 2007
Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr. in BUG (2007).
© Lionsgate Films
To say the trailer for Bug is misleading is correct, but this statement doesn’t convey exactly how far off this and other ads for the film are. The coming attraction for Bug makes this movie look like Dawn of the Dead meets Slither. In fact, while it does get bloody, this is a rare instance where a reviewer’s need to be clear outweighs preserving the element of surprise. Bluntly, Bug is not horror or science-fiction and in fact anyone watching the progression of the film who hasn’t seen the coming attractions won’t expect it to veer into the supernatural. Funnily enough, the trailer may put off people who would be interested in Bug if they knew its true nature, while enticing those who are likely to feel at best bemused and at worst absolutely duped.
Bug inhabits territory chronicled in everything from The Lost Weekend to Requiem for a Dream and The Salton Sea, with the twist (if it can be so designated) that most of the action happens in one room. Director William Friedkin and screenwriter Tracy Letts, adapting Letts’ stage play, have somewhat opened up the proceedings, but it would be a mistake to expect to travel far from the dingy motel room where Agnes (Ashley Judd), an unhappy woman who does coke but hasn’t let it rule her life so far, makes her home. Agnes works at a lesbian bar in rural Oklahoma, though she actually prefers men. She is understandably sour on her appalling ex-husband (Harry Connick, Jr.), but when she’s introduced to Peter (Michael Shannon), she takes to him at once. Peter is thoughtful in both the sense of being considerate and the sense of actually having a lot on his mind. Peter is taken with Agnes as well, and in short order, he’s in her bed – where he suffers an insect bite. Peter believes the insect has burrowed under his skin and is laying eggs, for reasons that become clear as revelations ensue. Since Agnes quickly comes to love Peter, she’s inclined to entertain his way of thinking, because the alternative is to cast him out and leave herself vulnerable both to her brutal ex and her own loneliness.
Audience members who have spent time with people who suffer from paranoid delusions, drug-affected behavior or both will find much to recognize in the scrambling insistence of Peter’s lucid-sounding tangents and in Agnes’ spoken rationalizations. Judd allows herself to be filmed with minimal makeup and does an exceptional job as the downtrodden woman who just wants a sense of self-determination and some human connection and is willing to pay a high price for it. Shannon is likewise impressive as Peter, who in his own mind is trying to save himself from nefarious forces. Connick plays a self-absorbed creep with conviction.
The performances are all worth watching, though director Friedkin and writer Letts put such verisimilitude into the mindsets of their characters that it’s more than a little like being stuck in a room with these folks for the running time, minus the ability to respond. It’s a little exhausting. Bug does develop a thriller edge, but that’s not the thrust of its effect. As a movie about two well-intentioned people who interact with explosive consequences, Bug is okay if a bit static at times. As a movie about anything supernatural or extraterrestrial, it simply doesn’t fit the criteria.
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