Wicker Park tries to have it all, ends up with nothing

Some might wonder why a commercial thriller starring teen heart-throb Josh Hartnett failed to make the summer release rush. Perhaps the explanation for Wicker Park’s late release lies in British director Paul McGuigan’s attempts to raise the film above summer blockbuster commonality. Or perhaps it has more to do with his utter failure to accomplish this goal.

Adapted from the 1996 French film L’Appartement, Park follows Matthew (Hartnett) on his quest to locate long lost ex-girlfriend Lisa (Troy’s Diane Kruger). The ensuing convoluted sequence of events, which has something to do with modern dance, mistaken identity and China, brings the audience first to confusion, then indifference.

After starting in the middle with Mathew engaged to someone new, screenwriter Brandon Boyce fills in the backstory through a series of flashbacks. The problem with this approach is that it reduces the relationship between Matthew and Lisa to a cutesy first date and some scattered sexual encounters. Seeing them together only a handful of times, we are never allowed to develop any sense of attachment to Mathew and Lisa’s relationship and don’t really care whether or not they reunite.

A veteran of smaller features, McGuigan over-reaches in his desire to give the film an arthouse feel. What results is a tiresome melding of styles more incoherent than ecclectic, with some scenes drawing from Shakespeare while others are remniscent of Scream (with Matthew Lillard co-starring as Matthew’s best friend).

Josh Hartnett spends most of the time furrowing his brow (possibly considering the future of his career), yet—to his credit—manages to bring some sense of humanity to a character who is essentially an adulterous stalker. Rose Byrne (Troy) delivers the only notable performamce as an insecure woman driven to treachery by obsession.

Ultimately, Wicker Park fails to choose between convention and innovation, leaving in its wake the sprawling remains of what could have been a decent movie.