By Shaun Ramdin
The Wood consists
of a series of flashbacks to the teenage years of three best friends as
they grow up in the urban neighbourhood of Inglewood, California during
the late 80’s. The flashbacks themselves are organized through what
is the central narrative of the film: the sobering up of Roland (Taye
Diggs) who is scheduled to be married in two hours, aided by his best
men Mike (Omar Epps) and Slim (Richard T. Jones). Although this story
behind the story is a clever technique (the flashbacks focus primarily
on Mike’s teenage romance while the present focuses on Roland’s
impending marriage), The Wood presents two very different stories neither
of which are fully realized. Roland’s actual wedding ceremony is
anti-climactic at best, and it is difficult to care about a bunch of static
characters. As can be expected, an incomplete storyline inevitably leads
to poor acting.
The Wood possesses a talented cast, but lack of direction and story leaves
the actors little room to develop their characters. Particularly disappointing
are Taye Diggs (the most pleasant surprise of Go) whose portrayal of a
drunk groom is more annoying than convincing.
Writer-director Rick Famuyiwa is torn between making a buddy film and
a romantic comedy. Regardless, both genres maintain humour as the driving
force behind their audience appeal, and unfortunately The Wood simply
isn’t funny. The film not only relies on the belief that misogyny
is funny—it centres itself upon it. In fact, the impetus for the
trio’s friendship is an act of sexual assault.
This kind of inexplicable and clearly unacceptable behaviour plagues the
film, hampering what could be a fresh and creative examination of sexual
awakening. While sex preoccupies a large portion of the adolescent male’s
brain, all teenagers proceed with some degree of trepidation towards sex.
This is captured much more accurately, and humorously in a farce like
American Pie. The way in which The Wood presents young male characters
who have no reservations about sex, would have made “Waiting to Ejaculate”
a more appropriately title.
There are, however, some enjoyable moments in a film whose pivotal scenes
involve vomit and assault. The younger versions of the three friends bring
a certain innocence to their roles. Standing out is Sean Nelson, who plays
the teenage Mike with a wide-eyed appeal that would certainly have been
more noticeable the film been better overall.
Unfortunately, the teenage actors are plagued by the fact that they look
nothing like their adult counterparts, illustrating the main flaw of the
film. Famuyiwa tries to combine two separate popular trends into one film.
Teen-oriented films rule the box office these days, and MTV Productions,
which has achieved success, Famuyiwa tries to achieve the same success
with the retro flashbacks in The Wood. For this reason alone, one should
expect little.
Most teen films simply aren’t that good, and The Wood is no exception.
And yet, it’s definitely a hip-hop world. Famuyiwa places his story
in an urban setting, and, recognizing the popularity of urban culture.
But he abandons creativity in favour of exploitation.
What could have been a very emotional funny portrayal of the clash between
the difficulty of growing up and maintaining typical teenage ideals, instead
becomes a series of bad clichés. He litters his script with incidents
of crime and police brutality, which are insulting rather than insightful.
Famuyiwa recognizes the importance of setting, naming the film after the
neighbourhood, but does little beyond that to reveal its significance.
Hip-hop culture, due to its popularity, possesses the potential to be
one of society’s most subversive voices, but usually falls short.
Sadly, Famuyiwa and The Wood choose not to be like Public Enemy, but rather
Puff Daddy and Mase.