Four Rooms

Director: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Written by: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Year: 1995
Genre: Comedy
My rating: 3 out of 5 (The Missing Ingredient: 2; The Wrong Man: 2; The Misbehavers: 4; The Man from Hollywood: 4)

As the film opens, we meet the central and unifying character, Ted the overzealous bellhop (Tim Roth), on his first day alone on the job at a hotel in Los Angeles. After a few words from his predecessor, the story moves on to the first of its four segments, Allison Anders' "Honeymoon Suite - The Missing Ingredient." In this bizarre short film, Ted assists a bevy of strange women (Valeria Golino, Madonna, Alicia Witt, Sammi Davis, Lili Taylor, Ione Skye, Amanda de Cadenet) moving into the honeymoon suite. He soon learns that they are a coven of witches that need his help to resurrect their goddess. After 20 minutes of confusing and unfunny developments, Ted leaves and continues on to the even worse second segment, Alexandre Rockwell's "Room 404 - The Wrong Man." Ted receives a request for ice from a party in Room 504, but they accidentally send him to 404, where he is caught up in some sort of inexplicable lovers' spat involving an apparently crazy man (David Proval) holding his wife (Jennifer Beals). Ted attempts to escape from this surreal experience that is as much of a nightmare for us as it is for him by outcrazying the man. I had just about given up on the film when it transitioned into Robert Rodriguez' delightfully humorous "Room 309 - The Misbehavers," in which a frighteningly macho man (Antonio Banderas) and his wife (Tamlyn Tomita) leave the hotel for a New Year's Eve party and pay Ted $500 to keep an eye on their young children (Lana McKissack, Danny Verduzco). Despite his pure terror at the man's threats should something go wrong, Ted has to manage the entire hotel and leaves the children on their own with only a strict warning and a promise of milk and cookies. Needless to say, they call him every five minutes for something and get into untold amounts of mischief, which Rodriguez daringly brings to a higher level when they get into the champagne and discover a dead body in the mattress. By the time the room has caught on fire, Ted has had enough. He marches downstairs to call his boss and resign immediately, but their conversation is interrupted by a call from the penthouse, which brings us to the final segment: Tarantino's "Penthouse - The Man from Hollywood." In this final adventure, movie hotshot Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino, in possibly his best acting performance) and his friends Norman (Paul Calderon), Leo (Bruce Willis), and Angela (the same woman from Room 404), rope Ted into helping them reenact a story from an old episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," which was actually adapted from a Roald Dahl short story. Ted brings them a block of wood, a doughnut, a ball of twine, three nails, a club sandwich, a bucket of ice, and a hatchet "as sharp as the Devil himself." Norman bets that he can light is Zippo lighter ten times in a row. If he is successful, he wins a prized car of Chester's. However, if he loses, his left pinky will be chopped off. $1000 convinces Ted to be the hatchet-wielder.

"Four Rooms" averages out to a fairly mediocre movie. Tim Roth plays Ted with an awkwardness and flamboyancy that is somewhat amusing, if not understood. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an unskilled performance, I just think it worked out as well as the directors (at the least the first two) envisioned. "The Missing Ingredient" certainly had potential, but threw it out the window in lieu of cheap laughs, or in this case, cheap "...what?"s. The acting in it made very little sense, and the only one of the witches who seemed to have any grasp on the material was the always-wonderful Lili Taylor. Although, I do think it was a bit extreme that it was deemed necessary to give Madonna a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. "The Wrong Man" was simply one of the most nonsensical pieces of crap I've ever seen. There were two instances where it implemented some clever physical comedy, but these were overshadowed by confusing absurdities. "The Misbehavers," however, was an ingenious mix of slapstick and dark comedy, with fresh material to fit the exponential chaos structure that made physical comedians famous. Antonio Banderas' parody of his own macho-ness, the best aspect of the whole film, could make anyone grin from ear to ear. "The Man from Hollywood" is, I suppose, only funny to people to are familiar with Tarantino's work and like seeing all the actors together. Being a QT fan, I found it quite entertaining. I also noticed that although he makes use of his excellent dialogue, he experiments with other forms of comedy here as well, and is largely successful in his endeavors. I guess that I should count myself lucky (so should the film) that the two better segments came last.


Structure/Form:
What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
The movie takes place in four different rooms.

How are the opening credits presented? Do they relate to the meaning?
With Pink Panther-esque cartoon escapades. I suppose they could relate to the meaning if the film had a meaning.

Is sound used in any vivid ways to enhance the film?
There's a very absurd score, although I like the band's name: Combustible Edison.

How does the film use color or light/dark to suggest tone and mood in different scenes?
The first two aren't smart enough to know that color and light/dark can suggest tone and mood, and the second two are smart enough to know that it isn't needed.

What specific scene constitutes the film's climax?
The end credits.

Does the film leave any disunities at the end?
Yes, but we're entertained by the last shot.

Why does the film conclude on this particular image?
It's pretty funny, although slightly different than Tarantino's usual style.


Theme:
How does this film relate to the issues presented or developed? What questions are evoked by the film? Does the film present a clear point of view on an issue? How?
Don't work in a hotel?