‘Better’ living amid Springer-style volatility

Writer-director Frank Novak’s low-budget, white-trash comedy “Better Housekeeping” has had nearly as tough a time reaching theaters as its Jerry Springer-inspired characters have carrying on a profanity-free conversation.

It won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2000 and made an unlikely appearance as the only U.S. film selected for Critic’s Week at Cannes that year, then sat on the shelf until it received a limited release from Universal Focus in 2002. It finally opens in Los Angeles via the relatively new distribution entity Slamdance on the Road.

Novak drops us cinema verite-style directly into the eye of the fractured, tortured marriage of Don (Bob Mills) and Donatella (Petra Westen). The pair receive almost nightly visits from sheriff’s deputies to calm their volatile arguments while awaiting a court date for their impending divorce. When they aren’t screaming at each other or threatening bodily harm, Don and Donatella communicate only through their 10-year-old son, Don Jr. (Andrew Eichner), sending him back and forth with expletive-laden messages.

Don, who apparently earns a living trading and selling collectible action figures at swap meets, spends his days and nights entertaining his beer-swilling buddies, blasting loud classic rock while lounging on the couple’s plastic-covered furniture. He raises the stakes and further infuriates Donatella by building a wall out of 2-by-4s and plasterboard down the middle of the house.

Meanwhile, Donatella’s new love from the factory where she works as a forklift driver, a button-down lesbian accountant named Marion (Tacey Adams), insists on trying to mediate between the two combatants as Don’s nerdy friends rev him up into a paranoid rage. Things escalate with the arrival of Joe (Al Schuermann), a misogynistic men’s rights advocate who upgrades Don’s puny pistol, first to a .38 and then to a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

The plot becomes fairly outrageous, but because the actors and filmmakers never condescend to the characters, the film has a realistic, documentary feel.

And even though the constant yelling and fighting become tedious, Novak’s attention to detail and his knack for deadpan dialogue add layers to characters who might otherwise be cartoonish. It makes for an original film that proves strangely resonant with surprisingly subtle humor and empathy under all the bombast.

*

Better Housekeeping

MPAA rating: R for pervasive language, domestic violence and drug content.

Times guidelines: A drug overdose, an exposed derriere and several abused automobiles

Bob Mills...Don

Petra Westen...Donatella

Zia...Chuck

A Modernica Pictures production, released by Slamdance on the Road. Writer-director Frank Novak. Producer Mark Mathis. Executive producer Jay Novak. Cinematographer Alex Vendler. Editor Fritz Feick. Costume designer Katie Meehan. Production designer Elizabeth Burhop. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Exclusively at ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood (323) 464-4226.