ASUNDER

US, 1999, 101 minutes,:
Blair Underwood, Debbi Morgan, Michael Beach.
Directed by Tim Reid.

Asunder is very effective title and could have been used on a more effective film than this one.

This is a film about African- American characters, friends for a long time. As the film opens, the group are at a fairground, Chance photographing everything, Michael being pushy, the two women forced to go on a wheel and one, pregnant, falling to her death.

Chance, the husband (Blair Underwood) is distraught, moves in with his friends, but begins to focus madly on Lauren (Debbi Morgan), Michael’s wife, Michael played by Michael Beach. Chance forces Lauren into of an affair situation, but he then moves out, returning transformed in appearance, hair, earring’s… Now he begins to stalk Lauren, with his camera, physically, sexually. She tries to resist, Michael trying to deal with the situation, ultimately leading to a violent solution.

1. The strong title? The relationship to marriage, friendship, personal character?

2. The meaning, disintegration, destruction?

3. The fairground, Chance taking the photos, flirting with Lauren, the friendship, with Michael? Long time? the atmosphere of tension? Michael and his pushy character, going onto the wheel, swinging the seats, nervousness, Roberta falling, pregnant, going to the hospital, deaths?

4. The effect on Chance, how much love Roberta, his affair with Lauren, his being distraught, moving in with Michael and Lauren, the situations, the beginnings of violence months, suspicion? The clashes? The photos? His going away, return, hair, earrings? His stalking Lauren, hounding her? The effect on her, on Michael, his leaving? Becoming aware of Chance, his greater violence, madness and death?

5. Roberta, the past, love for Chance, pregnant, the fall, her death? What would have been the different future for her with Chance?

6. Michael, long friendship, work, together, Michael blaming himself about the death, at home, love. And, yet the tension, the arguments, his going away, return, trying to cope, Chance and his attacks, Michael’s violent response?

7. Lauren, the character, the past, marrying Michael, the affair with Chance, renewed after his wife’s death? His using her as an object, stalking her? Lauren not wanting it, the resistance, his intrusion and the final violence?

8. A heightened melodrama about friendship, love, obsession and violence?