‘Keep the Lights On’ Plays Like Memory of Doomed Relationship

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HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5.0
Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Ira Sachs’ intimate “Keep the Lights On” is about the intersection of love and addiction and how the two can rarely exist in the same relationship. It is reportedly at least semi-autobiographical and the film undeniably has the feeling of memory, both in its emotional honesty and its episodic nature. It is a film in which we see snapshots of a long-term love affair that seems doomed from the start. The raw truth of much of it is strong enough to make the sometimes frustrating structure forgivable.

One man meets another for a casual sex encounter, after which the closeted of the two says, “I have a girlfriend, by the way. So, don’t get your hope up.” It probably should have ended there. But it doesn’t. Erik (Thure Lindhardt) is a documentary filmmaker who seems to lack a lot of focus in his life, something his sister Karen (Paprika Steen) is quick to point out. During a majority of “Keep the Lights On,” Erik is making a documentary about a barely-known filmmaker named Avery Willard. How he could spend so much of his life on a project that clearly couldn’t pay a bill is not overly explained but it does seem like an important theme, especially given the financial circles in which his new boyfriend runs.

Keep the Lights On
Keep the Lights On
Photo credit: Music Box Films

That new boyfriend is Paul (Zachary Booth), a handsome young man who is not only more closeted than Erik but faces significant demons of addiction. He disappears for large chunks of time and doesn’t respond to friends or family who try to get him help for his clear drug addiction. In one scene, Paul disappears from a dinner and the next time we see him it’s clear he’s been gone all night (although one doesn’t know if it’s the actual night of the dinner given the episodic nature of the film). As the film progresses, less and less of “Keep the Lights On” is about passion or love and more of it centers on Paul’s addiction.

Can you save someone you only really know sexually? I think that “Keep the Lights On” purposefully leaves out much of the traditional romance elements of films like this one. Sure, Paul throws Erik a surprise birthday party and there seems to be some joy early on in their relationship that is rekindled later with a heartfelt Christmas present but the undertone from the beginning is certainly not one that implies these men were meant to be together. There’s a sense that this is a doomed relationship picture from nearly their first encounter as Paul quickly turns to drugs and long absences. Perhaps Sachs is sketching a portrait of a man who can’t focus on anything – career or love – long enough to save another from addiction even if part of him really wants to do so.

We see Erik in more moments of frustration related to Paul than in passionate ones and it seems to be their physical chemistry that unites them more than anything else. There certainly seems to be a parallel between making a documentary about a filmmaker that no one ever really knew and the story of a man who never really gets to know the lover he takes. And by the time Erik does get his life together and “matures” to the point that he completes his film, his relationship is incomplete.

Keep the Lights On
Keep the Lights On
Photo credit: Music Box Films

The structure of “Keep the Lights On” can be sometimes too haphazard and episodic for its own good. It can be hard to keep up with the arc of their relationship especially in the first act. And yet the actors, particularly Lindhardt, find the truth in every episodic moment. There is such raw honesty and emotion throughout the film, such as in a call in which Erik is trying to get a doctor to tell him whether or not he’s HIV Positive over the phone as he works on his documentary and becoming overly concerned that the reason she won’t give him the news is because it’s bad.

Like actual memories of a relationship, “Keep the Lights On” feels like a series of moments, the big episodes we remember from the time we spent with the people we loved, hated, loved again, and hated again. It’s hard to say that it’s a happy memory or what lessons were learned by Erik/Ira’s doomed love affair but there’s definitely a truth here that’s too often missing from filmmaking. It’s an imperfect film. But so is love.

“Keep the Lights On” stars Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Paprika Steen, and Souleymane Sy Savane. It was written and directed by Ira Sachs. It opens at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on October 26, 2012.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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