Disc Reviews

The Brass Teapot Review

• 29th Oct 2013

Romantic comedies tend to be fantasy. They create an ideal world, with an ideal couple who face challenges yet the viewer is comforted by the thought that once a hard road is travelled they will get there in the end if they’re meant to be there. The Brass Teapot falls between several different stools. It seems to be too bitter or violent to be a romcom in the true sense of the word. But the fantasy element definitely has all the quirkiness of a 1980s romantic comedy. It is also a wish fulfilment, a sign of the times that we are living in desperate times in which the most loving of couples face some pretty hard and desperate choices – which perhaps goes some way to explain its very hard and bitter edge.

The film centres on a young couple struggling to get by in the suburban life – the girl, Alice (Juno Temple) is an Art History graduate ‘waiting for the right job to come along’ and stays at home feeling dejected at not getting the position she thinks she deserves. Meanwhile her husband, John (Michael Angarano) works all the hours he can to scrape by on his meagre office job and suddenly when they suddenly find themselves up against it with bills. To make matters worse John is about to lose his job. A short while later they become involved in a minor traffic accident in which someone has cut down all the local STOP road traffic signs. At the scene Alice spies an antiques shop where she becomes attracted by a shiny teapot in a back room. Rather rashly she decides to steal it but while bored at home she accidentally injures herself. Following this some money shoots out of the pot and in a eureka moment realizes that the pot spews up money whenever the owner harms themselves. When John gets home she is bruised when she shows him what had happened. From this moment the on-the-surface nice couple (although Temple’s Alice comes across as fairly selfish and self-indulgent from early on) become corrupted by the pot. At the same time they do research and discover that the teapot is an ancient Judaic pot that curses anyone who owns it and becomes corrupted. Ignoring the signs the temptations that the tea pot offers become too much to ignore. They then draw the attention of their tool of a landlord and two orthodox Jews who mysteriously violently attack them after the see John showing off the teapot on the TV programme ‘The Antiques Roadshow’. Needless to say a vulgar amount of wealth does come their way as well as the possibility of causing someone else pain landing them even more cash and becoming greedier still. This extends to emotionally hurting each other in one of the films more depressing moments.

To say this is a good film would be inaccurate; in fact it’s quite trashy. Equally to say it’s a bad film is to do it something of a disservice as it tackles these problems mentioned head on in a somewhat different and authentic manner. It does have genuinely funny moments with the viewer wondering how far is the film going to run with this idea. It could only have been made at a time of social insecurity and middle-class anxieties in cash strapped America.  Much of it was filmed in cheaper Romania, so clearly the film had many budget restraints. I have an answer for Alice: had she had a baby she would have made a great deal of money out of her pain for herself but chose a different kind of masochistic route.

Chris Hick