DVD Review: Auto Focus (C-)

Auto Focus (2002)
Directed by Paul Schrader
Starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe
MPAA: R
Grade: C-

Review by Scott Standish

By now everyone has heard the story of former Hogan's Heroes star Bob Krane. He was a clean cut family guy that became famous and soon found himself surrounded by beautiful, adoring female fans. Simple indiscretions led to regularly scheduled videotaped sex orgies. The double life caught up to him and his career bottomed out.

Greg Kinnear plays the swinging star and Willem Dafoe is well cast as his sidekick John Carpenter (not the director of Halloween). The acting here is not bad all around and the music by Angelo Badalamenti is also quite good. Last but not least is the fascinating subject matter itself: what could be more fertile ground for a movie than the freaked out double life of a beloved Hollywood star? Unfortunately, despite the cast's good intentions this film just doesn't not deliver the goods.

I was hoping to learn a lot more about the mind of Bob Krane. Auto Focus doesn't really take you deep into his mind, it's a People Magazine style gloss over of what should have been a moe exhaustive examination. The characters areunlikeable (even Krane's long suffering first wife is a bit of a nagging prude) and don't have a lot of range. One leaves Auto Focus still waiting for the ultimate Bob Krane bio flick and wondering why Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver, director of Patty Hearst) didn't pull out all the stops here.

Entertaining (especially for Dafoe fans) but not as fulfilling as one would have hoped Auto Focus offers a somewhat blurry glimpse into the world of Bob Krane. Everyone involved in this production has done better work (and probably will do better work) so skip this one if you can.

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