Inconsistent ‘Do Not Disturb’ Features Revolving Door of Quality

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The beautiful Mali Elfman, daughter of the great composer Danny Elfman, has written and produced (and co-stars in) a unique piece of work called “Do Not Disturb,” a collection of interconnected short films that chronicles the bizarre happenings in a Los Angeles hotel room and is now available On Demand. What goes on behind closed doors? If the walls of even one room could talk, the stories they would tell would be great fodder for filmmaking. “Do Not Disturb” is too inconsistent to recommend completely but features a few interesting elements and bodes well for a promising filmmaker.

Not unlike “Four Rooms,” “Do Not Disturb” links together a series of short films through one hotel worker, an unnamed maid effectively played by Diva Zappa (the youngest daughter of the legendary Frank). The five vignettes are directed by different filmmakers, including Eric Balfour (an actor well-known for his work on “24” and “Six Feet Under”) and Laura Henry. Each short has a different energy but they all take place in the same space and seek to document the sometimes-crazy behavior that happens when the hotel curtains are closed.

Do Not Disturb
Photo credit: Mali Elfman Productions

The first short, “Duccio’s Madonna,” was directed by Balfour and opens with a bald man (Harris Goldberg) ordering a prostitute (through a pretty-funny bit with an automated system on the other end of the phone). He is disappointed when he gets a brunette instead of a blonde, but, of course, it’s not traditional sex he’s looking for. When he said “kinky roleplaying” into the phone, he wasn’t kidding. This is more like therapy than prostitution. Goldberg is good and Balfour actually shows an interesting energy as a director, but the piece ends too abruptly.

And it doesn’t help that it moves on too easily the least-successful chunk of the film in Petro Papahadjopoloulos’ “Rocketman,” which stars Balfour as a recently-returned astronaut who may be going crazy. With some really horrendous special effects (every indie filmmaker’s motto needs to include something like “if you can’t afford it, don’t do it”) and bizarre dialogue, this is the only short that I would say is irredeemably bad.

Like a revolving door, the film turns around with “Prom,” featuring the strongest performances in the piece. The overall cliche of the school’s rough quarterback somehow ending up in a room with an openly gay classmate is overcome by the performances of the young stars, both of who come off as believable in a film that doesn’t have too many genuine moments.

Do Not Disturb
Photo credit: Mali Elfman Productions

The realism of the middle of the film is shattered by the final acts in which we meet a killer (Elfman herself), a queasy mobster (a great Troy Garity), and a bigger role for Zappa. The final two shorts are interconnected plot-wise and feature murder and possible insanity. They’re reasonably strong, but also a bit inconsistent.

Each director was given a day to complete their short and the rushed nature of the project sometimes shows. It feels like the film could have used a but more refining on every level — writing, rehearsing, directing — but there are enough interesting moments to nearly save the piece. The performances are consistently strong (especially Elfman, Garity, and Zappa), it’s just the connective tissue (and that awful second segment) that sinks it. At just over an hour, “Do Not Disturb” feels nearly incomplete. Elfman gave her team a day a piece and came out with a film that only half-works. One hopes that if she ever repeats the experiment, she’ll give them two.

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