LIFE UPSIDE DOWN: A Review Of The New Bob Odenkirk Film

Introduction

Cecilia Miniucchi’s new ‘romantic comedy’ Life Upside Down stars Bob Odenkirk, Danny Huston, Radha Mitchell, and Rosie Fellner. The director’s slice of lockdown life is set in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without any timescale in place and no vaccine to speak about yet, we locked the doors and camped down. So began a time of 24/7 pajamas, experimentation with facial hair, the discovery of new kitchen-based hobbies, Zoom calls/lessons/conferences/doctor appointments, and…The Tiger King.

Synopsis

Life Upside Down starts pre-pandemic, with an extended shot offering the audience a prologue full of life, color, and energy. We enter an art exhibition. We meet the gallery’s owner, Jonathan (Bob Odenkirk), who is trying to butter up his guests into purchasing some of his work. One such guest is the learned and wealthy writer, Paul (Danny Huston). He’s there on the recommendation of the luminous Clarissa (Radha Mitchell).  It soon becomes obvious that Jonathan and Clarissa are having an affair as they depart the show for a moment or two. She seems to be into it as she enjoys the forbidden fruit (Jonathan is married). Jonathan, in turn, states that his creativity has been reinvigorated by their (illicit) time spent together.

We then get a view of the Los Angeles skyline, which slowly rotates until it’s turned upside down. The audience is informed it is now MARCH 2020. We are now dropped into the homes of Jonathan and his distant wife (Jeanie Lim) as he makes any excuse to get some space to call Clarissa. She’s living alone but is renting her guesthouse to an eccentric European tenant (Cyrus Pahlavi). We’re also taken inside the home of Paul and his younger health and fitness fan wife, Rita (Rosie Fellner).

The illicit lovers have now found their affair has yet another barrier. Physical togetherness may have been the only thing that fueled their affair. Without it, he begins to grow distant. The audience comes to realize that perhaps he was just in it for sex and an ego boost. Jonathan is now more anxious and concerned about losing his gallery. Surprising himself, he starts to notice his wife again. Meanwhile, Clarissa is constantly checking her phone for any sort of sexting to continue, while delivering distracted lessons to her online students. She’s also noticing the continuing advances of her socially distanced tenant.

Elsewhere, we learn Paul is a pseudo-intellectual. His laidback affability from the prologue masks a pedantic, irritable smugness bubbling beneath the surface. He subjects his wife to gloats about his forthcoming and atrocious-sounding book. His wife does her best to meet his supposed intellectual needs but resorts to making the most of the opportunity to ‘go for a run.’ The three households’ storylines interweave as the lines of communication remain open for various purposes, and relationships develop in different unexpected ways. Ways that would not have happened under ‘the old normal.’

Analysis

For those who have not been able to block it out, lockdown took on the drab, dreary claustrophobic, and static quality, which the film is able to capture. This is down to the fact that the performers worked remotely and filmed themselves using smartphones and tablets. The contrast between the prologue and the majority of the rest of the film is immediate. It also achieves the desired effect as the backdrop of the frustrations and tensions suffered by the characters in this ‘new normal’.

Certain scenarios within Life Upside Down raise a wry smile of recognition. For example, a character optimistically takes up baking. Another is gifted a pasta-maker as a birthday present (new hobbies were developed and discarded during these times). Still, there are few laughs to be had. If anything, the setting raises a level of anxiety amongst the audience about being placed in this situation again with these unlikeable and unempathetic characters we are locked in with.

Life Upside Down takes place in a micro-verse where everyone has the latest phone or iPad. Teachers have a full class of online learners, and there is no mention of the living nightmare the less fortunate are facing elsewhere on a local, national or global level. We get one soundbite of the once familiar, morbid daily report of new cases/deaths, and we get the briefest of references to the trauma the elderly were facing. 

All of the performers in Life Upside Down commit to their roles. However, again, they are not necessarily likable. Nor do we have the desire to spend any significant amount of time with them. Are we supposed to root for the illicit couple simply because she is attractive and he is a version of his character from Better Call Saul? Further, Clarissa could have been more of a character if we could have spent more time with her alone.

Clarissa also could have informed Paul that he was indeed a boorish snob and that it was no wonder that his once-patient wife was now looking elsewhere for attention and satisfaction. Additionally, the story could also have allowed Clarissa to realize sooner that the affair was going nowhere. This would have given her a chance to fully realize her own future, thus coming out the other side a more independent woman.