This 1993 screen adaptation of a 1986 Off-Broadway play—both written by Roger Hedden (Sleep with Me)— about four aimless, Generation X characters has deepened with interest over time. Perhaps that’s because the film’s quartet of then-hip new film stars (Phoebe Cates, Eric Stolz, Tim Roth, Bridget Fonda) have by now either been with us so long they’re permanently in the Hollywood firmament, or they retreated long ago into private lives, where we’ve left them alone with respect for abbreviated careers. Or maybe Hedden’s quirky, slightly affected drama still holds up as part parable rather than realism.
In any case, the distance of years has enriched Bodies, Rest & Motion gel as affectation among spiritual and emotional drifters is the story’s point. Roth and Fonda play a rootless, Southern California couple named Nick and Beth. Nick is a television salesman in a constant state of hustling. He engineers thefts of TVs from the backroom by manipulating paperwork, and tries to soothe his own mercurial nature through long, solo drives. Beth hangs out, sans direction as well. Weirdly, she and Nick live next door to Carol (Cates), who is Nick’s ex and Beth’s best friend. Beth is often alarmed by the arrangement, especially when she sees Nick and Carol in intimate, if only vaguely sexual, contact, their shared sense of mischief and familiarity more alive than Beth’s duller bond with her beau.
Restless Nick has decided, for no particular reason, to head out to Butte, Montana, a decision that prompts his landlord to send out Sid (Stolz), a handyman, to paint Nick and Beth’s apartment. Nick, a genial stoner, is the kind of shiftless guy looking for somebody to save, and he sets his sites on Beth, for whom he openly lusts. Beth proves easy prey, and pretty soon she is setting a random course by attaching herself to yet another man. Carol is the wild card in this setting, an unknown and unknowing figure, though she serves as Betj’s confidante (despite undermining her by openly flirting with Nick).
This is a bunch that makes one want to shout, “What the hell is wrong with you people?” But the fascinating thing about Hedden’s script is that he shows no inclination to balance, conveniently, the internal dynamics within this crowd, i.e., to write one character as a super-achiever and another as a slacker. Everyone is detached from gravity’s pull, an unusual situation in a drama. Where it all leads for each of these characters is fascinating to watch. Director Michael Steinberg (who previously cast Stolz and Helen Hunt in the wonderful The Waterdance) brings sensitivity to his treatment of each character, without losing Hedden’s essential, off-kilter bearings. The plasticity of this world, from bubble wrap to disposable furniture, underscores the hollowness of the quartet’s existence. This is a film that can easily turn off many people and make them wonder why they should care. But that’s the wrong question. The right one is, do Hedden and Steinberg finally make these people care about something, anything? Strongly recommended.