The Limits of Comfort
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| Photo credit: Permission/IMDb |
Comfort
is great sometimes—maybe even most of the time—but it’s not everything. It’s
limiting. Life pushes you out of your comfort zone for a reason, right?
That
concept has clearly been on writer-director Brian Crano’s mind lately, because
his new film, Permission, is chock full of life getting in the way of
its central couple, played by Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens. Anna (Hall) and
Will (Stevens) are a comfortable couple, more at ease with each other than most
because they have been together since they were teenagers. They’re each other’s
first and only experience in everything—romantically, sexually, you name it. It
leaves them with a weird, stuck-in-traction feeling as they go out to celebrate
Anna’s 30th birthday accompanied by her brother Hale (David Joseph Craig) and
his boyfriend/Will’s best friend, Reece (Morgan Spector). Drinks flow and Will
fidgets with the engagement ring hidden in his coat pocket—he’s ready, he’s
been psyching himself up in the car, and the question is right there, waiting
to be popped.
Until,
of course, Reece reaches the drunkenness level that turns him into a
truth-telling shaman. Slurring his way through a speech full of canned lines
like, “Live a little,” Reece points out how weird it is that these 30-year-old
people have never been with anyone else. After all, Anna and Will are
“so inevitable” and basically “already have kids,” so why haven’t they ever had
the itch to take a break to sow wild oats? It’s an inelegant moment for Reece
but a comically excruciating sequence for Crano and cinematographer Adam
Bricker, who hold the camera on the horrified Hale, whose face grows broader
with each passing millisecond, as if to get large enough to shield his sister
and would-be brother-in-law from the doubts that may infect them. While
watching the man he loves cause great discomfort for Anna and Will, Hale spends
the entire sequence shooting daggers with his eyes at Reece, to say, “Don’t you
dare go there, you idiot!”
That
Anna and Will take Reece up on his drunken dare—which sober Reece reiterates
time and again is a terrible, rotten, no-good idea that will only end in
tragedy—is inevitable. Matt Friedman, the editor, makes that abundantly clear
through a humiliating and hilarious montage of Will and Anna having laughably
fast sex intercut with a grossly funny shot of Anna popping a zit on Will’s
back, along with longer shots of them staring, glassy-eyed, at the blue light
of a TV screen. The boredom envelopes them like a thunder shirt, keeping them
calm while every external stimulus suggests that they should be freaking out.
But Reece shed a tiny amount of light on their predicament and they decide, for
the relationship, they will try to meet (and sleep with) other people while
remaining together so they can gain the experience they need to make a lifetime
commitment to each other.
The Magic of Uncertainty
Their
decision is as scary as it gets, but it also injects a little magic into their
lives. In fact, Crano is unapologetic about his use of magical realism
throughout Permission. Early on, it manifests itself in the form of
broken or breaking things to highlight this couple ripping apart and heading in
different directions at high speed. Whenever Will learns something he doesn’t
like about himself or Anna in a public setting, a waitress drops whatever she’s
carrying. When Anna tells Will about meeting someone new, the frame shifts into
a vignette, with the corners softening into a darkened haze as the lights cut
out on everyone in the room but them. And, of course, Will walks past a car on
fire after finding out something that makes him sad.
But
things can be blissfully fantastical, too. High on MDMA with his new
side-girlfriend (Gina Gershon), Will’s head floats atop his body like a flag
blowing in a light breeze as he expresses his general sadness and desires for
something different. Anna and Dane, the musician for whom she begins to feel
things other than carnal desire, break into a concert hall to play a lone piano
for an audience of nobody but themselves—and those viewing the movie.
Crippling Uncertainty—or Soaring Possibility?
So,
which is better? The simple blandness of those who comfort you or the
possibility of finding those who will help you actualize your full potential?
Can’t you motivate yourself to be your best with those who comfort you
remaining in your life? Or is a clean break and a cannonball into the pool of a
new world really what’s necessary?
Permission has an answer for its characters, but its message to the
audience is more complicated than, “Do the same thing Anna and Will decide,”
because what’s right for them isn’t necessarily right for you. You’ll always
have “what might have been” tugging at your conscience no matter what you
decide, and regrets will pile up.
But
so might a deeper understanding of those you love—or you’ll find the person you
need. It’s up to you. Choose wisely, but make sure you actually choose
something. Stasis is no way to live.
Director:
Brian Crano
Writer:
Brian Crano
Starring:
Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Morgan Spector, David Joseph Craig, Jason Sudeikis,
Gina Gershon, François Arnaud
Available
in limited release and on demand now
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