MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Mistress’ Mirrors the Deal-Makers

Movies about Hollywood are often knocked for being too inbred but the genre has resulted in a surprising number of good films, most recently Robert Altman’s “The Player.” The trick is to make a Hollywood movie that doesn’t exist only for Hollywoodians.

“Mistress,” the directorial debut of veteran actor Barry Primus, is the kind of “personal” project that doesn’t often get financed anymore. And probably this film wouldn’t have been financed either without the involvement of Robert De Niro, who plays a cameo and co-produced.

The central joke in “Mistress” (Laemmle Sunset 5) is that it’s a minuscule-budgeted movie about a minuscule-budgeted movie. Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl) plays a once-promising writer-director whose career has degenerated to the point where he now ekes out a living in L.A. making instructional videos; he spends his evenings alone at home watching “La Grande Illusion.” His wife (Laurie Metcalfe) tries to lure him back to New York to teach drama at Queens College but in the midst of Marvin’s stupor comes a bolt from the blue. A has-been producer, Jack Roth (Martin Landau), comes upon an old, unproduced script of Marvin’s and claims he has the backers to finance it.

The initial meetings between Marvin and Jack are nifty satirical vignettes. Jack is desperate to get back into the business, but he cloaks his desperation with a healthy dollop of glib schmoozing--which, of course, only makes him seem more desperate. The backers he has in mind all turn out to be millionaires with mistresses eager for a part in the film. As each backer’s demands are met in turn, Marvin’s serious, sensitive scenario about a suicidal painter devolves into sex-and-sleaze hackwork.

It’s to the film’s credit that we recognize Marvin’s original script as a species of hackwork too. Marvin’s “integrity” isn’t played for laughs but it’s gently kidded; he could use an infusion of corrupt, low-down energy.

“Mistress” (rated R for language) is fine as long as it sticks with Marvin and Jack, and with Stuart (Jace Alexander), a young screenwriter who’s brought in to pump up the project. The backers, played by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello and De Niro, have their own hyper-direct styles. They see the filmmaking business strictly as a way to cheer up their mistresses (Tuesday Knight, Jean Smart and Sheryl Lee Ralph) and their bank accounts. Compared to Marvin’s wayward artsiness, their direct-action approach is actually refreshing. Unlike the big-shot studio types, at least these guys don’t try to talk art when they mean moolah.

However, Primus, who co-scripted with J. W. Lawton, isn’t content to make a low-key Hollywood satire. There’s a lot of Marvin in his soul, and, as the film dawdles on, it becomes more and more soppy and heartfelt. “Mistress” is probably Primus’ own dream project, and he’s too ambitious for his own good. The film would be better if it were less highfalutin about Marvin’s spiritual dilemma. Primus wants to make more than a Hollywood comedy but his film only works when it stays within the limits of the genre--when it’s nasty-funny.

Primus isn’t too great at pacing or camera work but he knows how to work his actors up into loose-limbed, revue-sketch situations. Landau is often amazing; he practically turns Jack’s pleas for money into arias. Wallach and De Niro create full-scale caricatures out of the sketchiest outlines. Alexander sports a blotto, hangdog look in some of the pitch meetings that’s like a comic emblem of uncomprehending despair.

Wuhl is one of the best (and least recognized) comic actors in movies, but he’s a bit inert as Marvin--maybe because the role is such a mixture of ambition and soulfulness and vaudeville that it never really finds a center. Wuhl is occasionally touching, and his blank-faced disbelief can be very funny; he has the addled look of a shell-shocked aesthete. But for the most part Marvin’s funk doesn’t bring out Wuhl’s sharpest talents; he needs a role with more spring and less vacant staring-off-into-the-distance. And Primus needs a project that will sustain his gift for transforming a group of disparate actors into a spirited jamboree.

‘Mistress’

Robert Wuhl: Marvin Landisman

Martin Landau: Jack Roth

Jace Alexander: Stuart Stratland

Robert De Niro: Evan M. Wright

A Tribeca Productions and Meir Teper presentation of a Rainbow/Tribeca release. Director Barry Primus. Producers Meir Teper & Robert De Niro. Executive producer Ruth Charny. Screenplay by Barry Primus and J. W. Lawton. Cinematographer Sven Kirsten. Editor Steven Welsberg. Costumes Susan Nininger. Music Galt MacDermot. Production design Phil Peters. Art director Randy Eriksen. Set designer Colin De Rouin. Set decorator K. O. Fox. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (strong language).