L.I.E.

Infobox Film
name = L.I.E.


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Michael Cuesta
producer = Rene Bastian
writer = Michael Cuesta
Gerald Cuesta
Stephen M. Ryder
starring = Paul Dano
Bruce Altman
Billy Kay
James Costa
Brian Cox
distributor = New Yorker Films
released = January 20, 2001
runtime = Rated cut
97 min.
Unrated cut
108 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget = $700,000
gross = $1,667,192
amg_id = 1:237133
imdb_id = 0242587

"L.I.E." is an independent film, released in 2001, about a relationship between Howie, a 15-year-old boy, and a pederast known as 'Big John'. The title is an acronym for the Long Island Expressway. The film was directed by Michael Cuesta who has said that the film is about exploring sexuality. [Michael Cuesta Commentary issued as extra on DVD] . It stars Paul Dano as Howie and Brian Cox as Big John. Sexual contact between the two is merely suggested, not shown, and there is only one sex scene between an adult couple. The controversial portrayal of Big John as a sympathetic child molester earned the film an NC-17 rating.

Plot

Howie Blitzer (Paul Dano) is deeply affected by the death of his mother in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway and finds solace in the company of his best friend Gary (Billy Kay), a juvenile delinquent and hustler. Gary is attracted to Howie, but Howie is unsure of his own sexuality. They have two other 15-year-old friends, one of whom, Kevin (James Costa), has an incestuous relationship with his sister. The four boys regularly break into neighborhood houses.

One night, they break into the house of Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox) during his birthday party. Gary knows his way around the house and it transpires later that he used to have a sexual relationship with Big John. They make a noise and Big John confronts them, ripping a pocket off Howie’s pants. They get away with a pair of valuable World War II pistols.

John confronts Gary over the burglary and Gary names Howie as his accomplice. John is manipulative in his pursuit and grooming of Howie. He does research on Howie then approaches him at a diner, speaking French because he knows the boy speaks the language, and pretending that he knew his mother. He offers the boy a lift home and Howie is impressed that Big John happens to drive Howie's dream car. Once he has gained Howie’s confidence he pulls out the torn pocket and demands that Howie returns the guns. Howie gets one gun back from Gary’s room, and returns it. When he arrives at the house, John has a photograph of a shirtless pre-pubescent boy upon his laptop. John wants $1000 for the other gun and Howie offers to work for him to pay off the debt.

John then puts his plan for seducing Howie into action. He puts on a pornographic video showing heterosexual oral sex then sits down beside Howie. He starts to stroke the boy’s thigh and says, “What have you got that’s worth a thousand dollars?” He also asks Howie if his penis is more than five inches and claims “I’m the best cocksucker in the whole Western Hemisphere.” Howie does not respond to his advances.

John has a 19-year-old live-in lover called Scott (Walter Masterson) who says to John as Howie leaves, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” John responds, “I am. I always am.”

When he returns home, Howie masturbates to a fantasy involving both John and the girl in the video. Gary then steals money from Howie’s distant father (Bruce Altman) and disappears to Los Angeles. This affects Howie and his confusion over his sexual identity worsens.

John and Howie begin a tenuous friendship in which John becomes a kind of father figure to the boy. There is no sexual activity, but there is talk of sex. Howie realises that he wields sexual power over John and John realizes this too.

Howie stays over at John’s house and John asks Scott to go and stay in a motel for a few nights. Howie wanders round the house and, while picking up a toy drum on a mantelpiece discovers a stash of pictures of semi-naked boys. Some are pictures of a younger (and naked) Gary and others are of a shirtless blond 11-year-old boy, confirming, as with the image on the laptop, that John is a pedophile. Scott comes into the room and warns Howie off taking what is his, i.e. John.

Howie is particularly vulnerable because he believes his father has abandoned him, and later that evening comes into John’s bedroom wearing just his underpants, expecting John to sleep with him. But when John tells Howie his father didn't abandon him, but is in jail, Howie breaks down and cries. In his compassion for Howie, John pulls back from molesting the boy and leaves him to sleep by himself. The next morning, John is all charm, fixing Howie breakfast and he then takes Howie to see his father in jail.

After dropping Howie off, he returns to the place where boys wait for chickenhawks. As he sits in his car, Scott, who is devastated by the attention John is giving to Howie, drives by and shoots him dead.

At the end, everyone Howie has ever loved has left him: his mother and John are dead; Gary has run away, and his father is in prison and in the final scene he is contemplating the expressway, vowing he won't let it get him too.

Cast

* Paul Dano as Howie Blitzer
* Bruce Altman as Marty Blitzer
* Billy Kay as Gary
* James Costa as Kevin Cole
* Brian Cox as Big John Harrigan
* Walter Masterson as Scott

Themes

Sexual identity is a major theme in the film; Michael Cuesta has said that the ambiguity of Howie's sexual orientation and his relationship with Big John is at the heart of the film. [Michael Cuesta Commentary issued as extra on DVD]

Brian Cox has said, “Big John realizes that Howie is much more than a little boy, a young boy he can hit on”. [Brian Cox Commentary issued as extra on DVD] Cuesta has said that John is confused, and doesn’t know if he wanted “to be with him, sexually, or just father him.” [Michael Cuesta Commentary issued as extra on DVD]

NC-17 rating

After receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, "L.I.E." was released without a rating (because American film ratings are optional for films not distributed by MPAA members or their subsidiaries), an unusual step for an already rated film. Both a tamer R rated version and the original uncut film are available on DVD.

Awards and Nomination

Wins
Independent Spirit Award
Best Debut Performance - Paul Dano
Producers Award - Rene Bastn, Linda Moran, and Michael Cuesta

Nominees
Independent Spirit Award
Best Lead Actor - Brian Cox
Best Supporting Lead - Billy Kay
Best First Screenplay - Michael Cuesta, Gerald Cuesta, and Stephen Ryder
Best Director - Michael Cuesta
Best Feature - Rene Bastin, Linda Moran, and Michael Cuesta

AFI Awards
AFI Featured Actor of the Year - Male - Movies Brian Cox

Trivia

* Portions of this movie were filmed at Harborfields High School, located in Greenlawn, New York, not far from the Long Island Expressway.
* Partway through the film, Howie recites an excerpt of Walt Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". Whitman, born on Long Island, is believed by most scholars to have been a closet homosexual.
* The film features the acclaimed song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan.
* Paul Dano's mother plays the non-speaking role of Howie's deceased mother, Sylvia Blitzer, in the film in several flashback and dream sequences. Due to the controversial nature of the film, she, or another guardian, was always on set.

References

ee also

* List of films portraying paedophilia or sexual abuse of minors

External links

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* [http://www.i-reports.info/m/M200201.html| L.I.E.] at [http://www.i-reports.info interrogation reports]