WALK OF SHAME
US, 2014, 95 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Wright, Ethan Suplee, Bill Burr, Alphonso Mc Auley.
Directed by Steven Brill.
Walk of Shame is a star vehicle for Elizabeth Banks, who, since the early 2000s, has had an increasingly successful career in films, showing herself a versatile actress and comedian, as well as moving into direction, especially with Pitch Perfect 2.
Here she plays a TV anchor who has the possibility of a better job after a successful audition. When she receives news that the other candidate has been chosen, she gets depressed, allows two of her ditzy friends to take her out to a club, dressing her in a provocative yellow dress, her getting drunk, and finding herself locked out of the club and dependent on the bartender, a sympathetic James Marsden. They spend the night together.
This is a film about the morning after. When she receives a phone call that the other candidate has been excluded because of a bad reputation, she goes to hurry to the studio, only to find herself locked out of the apartment, her card towed away. This leads to a range of dangers, difficulties and adventures in the city streets, dressed only in the yellow dress, thought of as a prostitute by the police and by the prostitutes themselves, encountering a gruff taxi driver, getting caught up in a crack house but finding the inhabitants friendly, especially a young man who recognises her from the television.
Eventually, she is able to make some phone calls and her friends set out to look for her. In the meantime, she tries to sell some drugs to get some money for a taxi, has a huge clash with a taxi driver – and ironically encounters him again when she tries to hide doing massages in a parlour. A little boy wants to see her breasts in exchange for lending him her bicycle. She is chased by the police and eventually crosses the freeway, gets herself back to the studio, goes into make up, and then tells her story very frankly on the evening news – with the result that the executives think she would be good for reality TV investigations.
There are a number of amusing situations – with touches of the raunchy.
1. An American urban story, television channels, clubs and bars, the streets overnight? Locations, the streets and the variety of characters, ordinary characters, drug dealers, police?
2. The title, the focus on Meaghan Miles, her squeaky-clean image, her ambitions, on television, the news, her agent, the audition for the new job, a good impression, hearing that the other candidate was preferred? Her girlfriends, their support, taking her out, their ditzy behaviour, the yellow dress, provocative, her drinking, letting go, Gordon at the bar, locked out, Gordon helping her, but not wanting her to drive, taking her home, the night together?
3. The morning after, her regrets, locked outside, the car disappeared, her purse in the car? Not remembering phone numbers? Ringing and leaving messages?
4. The early hours of the morning, in the dress, having heard the news that the other candidate had been excluded, her desperately wanting to get to the television studio?
5. The comedy of wandering the city, without money, identification, ability to phone?
6. The variety of people she met, hiding with the dress, the presumption that she was a prostitute, the car stopping and the man driving off, the other women and sending her away? Her protests? The taxi driver and wanting her to do lap dances – and his reappearing at the massage parlour?
7. In the crack house, the three men, wary, suspicious that she was the police, her gradually explaining things? Pookie and recognising her from the television, his praise of her? The other men believing her? Helping? Pookie giving her the drugs? Her trying to gain some money by selling them in the park, the man apprehensive?
8. The police, the encounter, not believing her, at the end of their time, conscientious, giving her warnings? The officer and his sending them out again? The information to the media, ‘the woman in the yellow dress’?
9. The range of other people she met, the boy with the bike, his wanting to see her breasts, taking the bike, the pursuit, the police?
10. Her friends, confronting Gordon, checking out the truth, the GPS, their all searching? Finding her, helping?
11. The television, the reporter in the helicopter, the past conversations with him on air, his attitudes, dumb?
12. The old lady, helping her to cross the freeway, eventually getting to the studio, the phone calls? Make up, transforming her? The executives and their being interested in her, a reality TV show?
13. Decisions and consequences – and the humorous style of the film with the raunchy touches?
