One of the nice side benefits to being a LOST
fan is that it has led me to several movies by way of its cast. With a
couple dozen actors starring and another hundred or so in memorable
supporting roles, that opens up a lot of possibilities. In the case of The Laramie Project,
I’d run across it on the IMDb page of Nestor Carbonell and Jeremy
Davies, which piqued my interest enough to click on its own page and
discover that it also features Clancy Brown and Michael Emerson. Not
since In Bruges have I seen so many actors from the same series (in that case, Harry Potter) in another project.
Of course, this is a movie with a huge cast. In essence, it’s a
documentary, with actors standing in for the citizens of Laramie,
Wyoming and the team of people who came to interview them in the wake of
the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.
Writer-director Moises Kaufman headed a group of interviewers who spoke
to more than 200 people over the course of a year, gathering residents’
impressions of the trial as it unfolded as well as their memories of
Matthew and of Aaron McKinney (Mark Webber) and Russell Henderson
(Garrett Neergaard), the young men responsible for his death.
The film, like the acclaimed play that preceded it, distills hundreds of
hours of interviews into a couple of hours. On stage, there are only
eight actors, each playing multiple roles, but in the movie, each
character is portrayed by a different actor. From the many voices
represented, some particularly memorable characters emerge,
demonstrating the range of reactions to this tragic event. The vast
majority of citizens are distressed by the violence. Some classify it as
a hate crime, while others can’t understand why there is so much focus
on Matthew’s orientation. Several clearly are tired of their town being
in the midst of a media frenzy, while others hope that Moises and his
team will help to demonstrate that most townspeople are not like the
murderers.
Initially, I was most attentive to the actors that
drew me to the movie in the first place. That alone gave me plenty to
watch, as Carbonell, portraying Moises, is probably on-screen for more
than half the movie. Here, he demonstrates the same sort of
level-headedness and good listening skills that make Richard Alpert such
an effective advisor on LOST. Jeremy Davies, portraying theatre
major Jedadiah Schulz, has quite a bit of screen time too. Like Daniel
Faraday, he’s sweet-natured, soft-spoken almost to the point of
inarticulateness and perpetually nervous, due in part to his fear of
going against the wishes of his strong-willed parents. Perhaps better
than any other character, he exemplifies the struggle to reconcile
compassion with seemingly conflicting religious beliefs. Davies and
Carbonell appear together in several scenes, which is neat to see as
they interact so memorably in two of LOST‘s most game-changing episodes.
Clancy Brown, like Kelvin Inman, has a no-nonsense air about him as
detective Rob Debree, who plays a major part in the trials that follow,
while Michael Emerson, so often chilling as Ben Linus, manages to cause
uneasiness in two brief scenes as a pastor of a local church. I was
disappointed in how limited his role was, since Emerson is always so
fascinating to watch and since it was hard to really get the measure of
his character in such a short time, but as he evidently refused to
participate in any sort of extended interview, I suppose that couldn’t
be avoided. I’m a little surprised Moises bothered to include him, but
I’m guessing he wanted to show that not all the clergy in town were as
accepting of Matthew’s open homosexuality as Father Roger Schmit (Tom
Bower), the feisty Catholic priest who becomes a major voice against
hate crimes. While Emerson’s unnamed reverend condemns the violence, the
steely manner in which he conveys his hope that Matthew repented of his
lifestyle before slipping into a coma also carries hints of
condemnation - though nothing near as virulent as the toxic words of
Fred Phelps (James Murtaugh), who, along with other members of his
Westboro Baptist Church, pickets Matthew’s funeral and the subsequent
trials.
That spiteful demonstration inspires a counter-protest led by Romaine Patterson (Christina Ricci), a spirited young woman whose friendship with Matthew helped spark her own activism. Sympathetic store owner Trish Steger (Margo Martindale)
and warm-hearted drama teacher Rebecca Hillicker (Camryn Manheim) are
among the most troubled that something like this could happen in their
town. One of the most riveting characters is Reggie Fluty (Amy Madigan),
the dedicated police officer who first arrives on the scene and later
finds out that her close contact with the bleeding Matthew exposed her
to his HIV, as she had open sores on her hands at the time. Also
intriguing is Steve Buscemi’s
crusty but wise Doc O’Conner, who sometimes chauffered Matthew into
Colorado, and Matt Galloway (Joshua Jackson), the guilt-ridden bartender
who was working the night Aaron and Russell accosted Matthew.
Meanwhile, the trial shows us the pain of Matthew’s parents, especially
his eloquent father (Terry Kinney), as well as the families of the
killers, who are unable to understand how the boys they love so much
could do such a thing.
The Laramie Project is a sad
movie, but there’s also something inspirational in the way that so many
of the residents come together to try to make sense of this tragic
event. In one of the film’s most striking scenes, a small group of
friends and supporters march at the end of the Homecoming Parade in
honor of Matthew, who at this point in the film is still clinging to
life in a hospital. The parade circles around the block, and by the time
it’s over hundreds of people have joined those bringing up the rear.
It’s a visual representation of the town’s reaction to the attack, and
though there are still some residents who don’t quite understand what
all the fuss is about, like Laura Linney’s Sherry Johnson, the grief
seems largely communal.
Moises Kaufman and his crew recently returned to Laramie to conduct more interviews for a play entitled The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later;
I don’t know if there are any plans to adapt that into a film as well,
but I would be interested to see how the town has changed in the years
since. A fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking film, The Laramie Project paints a complex portrait of a town coming to grips with a horrific crime and the prejudices that contributed to it.
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