BUBBLE as stretched on the big wide screen
Thanks to my friend George I was able to watch this movie Bubble by Steven Sonderbergh… which turned out to be a startling experience for both him and myself. This art digger was taking me along to an improvisation music and dance performance BEFORE the end of the film - which he couldn’t get himself going after several summons from his awaiting friend. (He later said that we should have watched the very last scene!) This film is among the ones which you think is worth it to go to the film fest rushing from theatre to theatre. EVEN though, the dvd was on simultaneous release. Do grab that!
Steven Soderbergh followed up his slick, star-studded Ocean’s Twelve, with Bubble, a small-town drama about workers in a doll factory, played by a cast of unknowns. Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) seems to have acclimated herself to a very simple life. She works at the factory, where she eats lunch with a younger co-worker, Kyle (Dustin Ashley), and goes home to take care of her elderly father. Her routine is disrupted when an attractive young woman, Rose (Misty Wilkins), is hired at the factory to help them with the holiday rush. Rose soon tells the others that she’s eager to leave their town, where there is "nothing to do." She immediately attracts Kyle’s attention. One night, Rose asks Martha to baby-sit for her two-year-old daughter while she goes out on a date. Martha is startled to learn that her date is with Kyle. When Rose returns home that night, she’s greeted by her angry ex-boyfriend, Jake (K. Smith), who accuses her of stealing from him. Martha looks on while Rose and Jake have a heated confrontation. The next morning, one of the characters is found murdered, and a detective (played by Decker Moody) begins to investigate. Bubble was written by Coleman Hough, who also scripted Soderbergh’s Full Frontal. It was shown at the 2005 New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
The town where the story set in was sluggish. Everyone was earning a living to make ends meet. No entertainment venues besides the bar was shown. The doll factory they worked in did not seem to be able to pay the handful employees a lot but was fairly generous to its staff. It may be one of the factory-based towns in its recession possibly due to globalisation. All three protagonists have to burn the mid light oil and barely making a living. Besides operating the machine, spraying and assembling the body parts of the dolls, Kyle shoveled mud, Martha sewed doll dresses and Rose cleaned after a luxurious house. Money had been a constant problem particularly for Rose. She stole money from Kyle and suspectibly from her ex-boyfriend. She was the "meanest" person in the film especially when she yelled at Martha asking her to "mind your own business and keep reading your book" after Martha had witnessed Rose’s fight with her ex. She bathed at the rich man’s house, because of her pain in the back from work in the elderly home. It did not seem to hurt anyone to do that. Martha however saw it as something wicked and she also felt being used by her for the favours Rose asked her. Probably she felt that principally out of her affection for Kyle. Everything so sensibly human. I did not notice until G told me he felt sad for Kyle who just stayed home after work in his room with four walls - no stereo no internet. It is scary.
Throughout the film the audience have a lot of sympathy for Martha, a chubby woman in her 50s with little attraction in her appearance who worked and took good care of her father. There were a number of scenes with her eating. And after the night she babysitted Rose’s kid. So little she had, so humble of what she wanted to retain.
It was intriguing that Martha forgot about her crime, or the denial of it. And realising it suddenly. G related that to the American war crimes and conspiring in them - how people close their eyes and ears.
The persona of all three characters were depicted realisticly and the audience would feel deeply for Martha and Kyle and possibly understanding for Rose. Martha reminded me of The Fat Girl. Both ending without a resolution. Globalisation is a scary thing in which it deepens the gap between the rich and the poor even in the so-called developed countries. Looking at that desperate town I’m almost grateful that I live in shitty Hong Kong.
Just found out that in real life "Martha" worked in a drive-thru counter at the KFC in Ohio for 24 years! On the day the producer found her KFC was launching a new burger and she made approx 500 of them on that single day.
I checked Soderbergh’s filmography to find that he directed Solaris, Kafka and Traffic, produced Che Guevara, to name a few. Got to rewatch the Eros.
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