LAUREL CANYON

US, 2002, 103 minutes, Colour.
Frances Mc Dormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Allessandro Nivola, Natasha Mc Elhone.
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko.


Laurel Canyon is very much a Los Angeles film, especially with its beginning on the East Coast and the suggestions of its more uptight approach to life. Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale portray a young couple, he initially more enterprising, she from a rather wealthy and buttoned-up family. She agrees to follow him to new to Los Angeles where, for a time, they live with his free-spirited mother, played by Frances Mc Dormand.

The film shows a great deal of her attitude towards life, her casual relationships, her work, her care for her son, her being intrigued by her prospective daughter-in-law. He becomes more serious, trying to deal with his mother, caught up in a relationship where he more passively succumbs to a more aggressive woman and surprised at the changes in his wife. She, on the other hand, while confining herself initially to her room and her work, becomes more and more curious about the older woman’s way of life, the men, sexuality, and succumbs to this more hedonistic Los Angeles ethos.

The film was directed by Lisa Cholodenko who received some attention with her film, High Art. She also made the intriguingly humane Cave Dweller.


1. The title, the location in Los Angeles with its reputation? Lifestyle? Inhabitants?

2. A film about relationships, partners, mother and son? Exploring relationships, changing relationships?

3. The initial sequences on the East Coast, the party, the types, snobs, academics, looking with disdain on record production?

4. Sam and Alex, the initial sexual relationship, the sensuality of Alex, the tightness of Sam? At the party, Alex’s parents, their expectations? Sam and Alex both doctors? The plan to go to Los Angeles, Sam’s work in hospital, interest in being a psychiatrist? Alex and her finishing her thesis? The focus on genes and academic explorations? The plan to go to Los Angeles, to stay at Sam’s mother’s house, his warning about Jane and her lifestyle, personality? Playing Scrabble on the plane? Competitive?

5. Arriving in Los Angeles, Jane and the entourage in the house, the awkwardness, Sam talking with his mother, the plan to get another house? Jane’s explanation of the gift of the house to a past lover, the situation?

6. Sam, driving to work, almost crashing into Sarah? Sam’s past, uptight, proper, contrasting with his parents, wanting to prove himself? At the hospital, the young man taking ecstasy, the conflict, his seeing him in the ward, the later interview with his mother, telling her to put her high values aside and have compassion for her son? Sarah, on the ward, friendship, talking?

7. Alex, support, the musicians, rehearsing the song, the drugs, sexual attitudes, especially Jane and Ian? Going out of her room, curiosity, watching the rehearsing, smoking the pot, the sexual encounter, the threesome? The effect on her, some kind of liberation? A tension with Sam on his return? His questions, criticising her? Going to look for a house, Sam and the newspapers and possibilities, the man in the house, going to live with his son, Alex pleasant with him?

8. Jane, a life, freedom, relationships with men and women? Producing the records? Reliable? Ian and the song, the lyrics, rehearsing, the band playing? Claudia phoning, the producer, exercise bike, verbal clashes with Jane? Jane and pleasant with Alex? Her being conscious that she was her son’s girlfriend?

9. Sarah, collecting Sam, the discussions, at work in the hospital, the gathering and drinking? Her perspective on relationships, love, on speaking frankly, the attraction towards Sam? His hesitations? Meeting Alex, pleasant conversation?

10. Ian, the song, the decision to have a ballad? The recording? Alex saying the former song did not draw her in but the ballad did?

11. The effect on Alex of her behaviour, saying that she could not participate in everything? Sam, his being upset?

12. Jane and Ian, Ian and his attitude towards Alex, sexual?

13. Sam, swimming in the pool, face to the camera – his future, as a psychiatrist, with Alex or not, relationship with his mother? Alex’s choices? Jane and her way of life, with men, drugs, sex and growing older?