SPEC D: Onur Turkel. USA. 96 min. Sep 18, 3:15 pm, Scotiabank 2. Rating: NNN
Sandra Oh and Anne Heche pour on the blood, sweat and tears – mostly blood, though – in writer/director Turkel’s satirical smackdown about two college friends who meet in New York after two decades apart and almost immediately start punching each other in the face.
Veronica (Oh) is a monied wife and doting mother Ashley (Heche) is a painter still struggling in obscurity, which is causing problems with her girlfriend (Alicia Silverstone). By the midpoint of the film, none of those things will matter. Only the next confrontation matters.
It’s all played out against the backdrop of a “new” American war in the Middle East – a metaphor for the futility of endless conflict that grows more and more overt as Turkel pushes his characters through their cyclical battle. But even when the story falters, Oh and Heche remain terrifying in their all-consuming fury.