I still wanted to see Misty Green, which is the recent movie written and directed by Chris Rock, in spite of its mixed reviews.
This movie tells the story of this aging and difficult actor (Rosalind Eleazar) who is given one week to leave her late lover’s apartment, discovers that her schizophrenic brother Jay (Daniel Kaluuya) has been released from rehab, and encounters a casting director named Jordan (Rock) who offers her second chances. This challenging confluence presumably is why Misty sabotages another acting opportunity and reluctantly accepts a prostitution offer from sometime lover, and fellow addict, Zach (Adam Driver), but doesn’t prevent her from attempting to make amends and reconstruct her life.
I wanted to like this movie, which could have offered insights into aging, especially in a society that prioritizes its opposite. However, it seemed distracted by achieving a prestige status or something, which left it a slick story that never quite moved me.
Eleazar’s performance is sufficiently solid, and could have offered a way into this story. Moreover, several of supporting performances as foils clarify Eleazar’s character Misty.
Misty’s friend Naomi (Anna Kendrick) is content to settle for something less than honesty in exchange for stability, and her inheritance. Misty’s brother Jay models second chances but never can make amends, or make good on these second change promises.
Part of the problem is that Misty’s change is never dramatized, which also poses a problem for the forgiveness theme that seems designated as the core of this story.
Jordan tells Misty midway into the movie a story from his uncle about forgiveness — people discover how much they’re loved when their lovers find them sleeping with others — and Misty returns to this story when she stops by something Jordan is shooting at the end of this movie.
Misty is high and driving when she is initially told this story, and has betrayed Jordan, and literally prostituted herself, when she returns to it at the end. The obvious question in the background has been whether she deserves forgiveness, but the significance is that she has learned to believe no matter whether Jordan calls or not that she does.
This discovery, and growth, however are never dramatized or demonstrated, and need to be substantiated in a more developed script. As a result, this movie, which is mostly a success for Rock as its director, is somewhat less so for him as its author.
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