Money Shot
Stark Raving, 232-7072
Through Jan 5

Carol Dane's Money Shot tells the fascinating story of two filmmakers, John and David (Rafael Untalan and Joseph Fisher) who set out to document the story behind a Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph. The photo features a woman in some war-torn country, and the woman appears on her knees in front of a soldier, trying to prevent him from killing a small boy. The two men decide that if they can find the woman and get her story on tape, they will have the makings for a great film. Naturally, the woman (Darcy Lynne) turns out to be a far different character than they had anticipated, and the story surrounding the shot much less heroic and far more twisted than they ever dreamed.

This scenario effectively addresses the deceptive nature of photographs, which appear to be perfect copies of reality, but in fact have nothing to do with reality because the moment they are "copying" is taken out of context. The story that the captured moment tells is based on the viewer's perception.

Money approaches its theme with skill and care, and along the way makes some nice, relevant statements on the ruthless nature of investigative journalism and the effects that war has on the involved country's innocent bystanders. Even more impressively, these statements are made in the flow of real drama, as the relationship between the documentarians and their subject becomes more tense and builds towards a moment of powerful and disturbing revelation.

Then the first act ends, and things start to unravel. For some reason, Dane uses her first act's wonderful conclusion as a springboard to make her characters go crazy. A bizarre reenactment of the woman's actual interactions with the soldiers unfolds between her and John. John's behavior in this scene is out of control and entirely unprecedented. Untalan, a talented actor, screams a lot and breathes convincingly, but what is all his character's sweaty energy in reaction to? His shattered illusions regarding the photograph? His disappointment that his film won't be as wholesome as he had expected? Would such a disappointment really cause such a man to wave a gun around and threaten characters with their lives?

Dane's first act is quiet, subtle, and thought-provoking, failing to set the table for a second act that is loud, violent, and heavy-handed. There are strong performances here, as well as beautiful production values (Matthew B. Zrebski's original soundtrack is so gorgeous, Stark Raving has made an album of it that is for sale during intermission). But even the strongest elemental forces of planet Earth can't make oil and water mix.