Boston
Phoenix
BY JEFFREY GANTZ
10/40/02
As Chopin’s "Minute" Waltz plays in the background, Jim Wolpaw recounts his baseball dream where Emily Dickinson comes out to play second base in her trademark white gown and the runner on first figures this would be a good time to steal, but when the throw comes down, she tags him out as neatly as Nomar. So right away you know this effort from local filmmakers Wolpaw and Steve Gentile won’t be your ordinary cinematic biography.
After Julie (Belle of Amherst) Harris reads "My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—" and Wolpaw has weighed in with, "If you don’t understand this poem, join the club," he explains that he started out with the standard documentary approach, calling on talking-head historians (Daniel Lombardo), English professors (Alan Powers and Lisa Perkins), artists (Leslie Dill), poet laureates (Billy Collins), and a trio of psychotherapists and throwing in some "artsy nature shots" as background to readings from Dickinson’s 1789 poems. He even created an Emily Dickinson rock band. "But my central character wasn’t coming into focus." He contemplates going "the Hollywood route," with Charlton Heston and Jean Stapleton as Emily’s parents, Tracey Ullman as sister Lavinia, and Kevin Spacey as brother Austin.
But who to play Emily? "I received more than 1000 responses to my casting call, including 100 from men." We see a number of hopefuls trying to answer Wolpaw’s audition questions: (1) Why don’t you ever leave your house? (2) Are you in love with Death? (3) Do you have a problem with God? (4) Describe what would be for you a truly "Wild Night." Here’s where the film begins to sag, since these ladies (none of the male candidates gets on camera) haven’t a clue about telling it slant — or maybe that’s the point, but it doesn’t make for an edifying evening. In the end, however, what with those talking heads speculating and Julie Harris providing an authentic voice and Wolpaw stitching it all together with biographical information and finally admitting to what’s really on his mind — "Did anyone ever get past second base with Emily?" — Loaded Gun is almost as loaded as Dickinson herself. And the rockers who play over the end credits ought to think about making their appearance a permanent gig — they already have the greatest lyrics a band could ask for.
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