Reality bites

>> Myles Berkowitz searches for love in 20 Dates

by MATTHEW HAYS

I had a nagging premonition that Myles Berkowitz, the protagonist of the faux doc 20 Dates, might be irritating in his film. Which is true. But what's most annoying about his directorial debut, which runs less than 90 minutes but feels much, much longer, is that it's pretending to be original.

As Berkowitz introduces himself to the audience--he's a recently divorced, frustrated filmmaker--he tells us the film project was a perfect way to combine both his failed professional and personal lives.

Not a bad line, evoking a few chuckles here and there in the cinema, much like a handful of the lines throughout the film. But selling this concept as in any way novel is really a stretch. It's been done before, and need anyone say it, it's been done much better--and infinitely more convincingly (see the mockumentary David Holzman's Diary or the real doc Sherman's March).

Berkowitz decides to create a film diary around his desperate love life, venturing to document his 20 forays into dating. Likable protagonists aren't really a must, but Berkowitz is neither endearing nor particularly deep. Thus we've lost interest within minutes of the film beginning, and are left to groan through and doze off during the remaining 18 dates.

Adding to the long list of deadening "revelations" is the one about dating in a grim and cynical place like Los Angeles being way tougher than anywhere else. Thanks for the warning!

Berkowitz tries to throw a kink into the storyline. Somewhat predictably, before the 20-date mark has been reached, our hero finds himself falling in love with a sexy young thing. Played by Elisabeth Wagner, this romantic interest is also bright and just as smitten with the filmmaker as he is with her. How can the filmmaker continue to date while maintaining his relationship with his newfound squeeze? Will their romance survive all the pratfalls of indie filmmaking? Who cares?

And there's not only the problem of the storyline, which is lame, but also 20 Dates' style. Cinema verité has been so totally done to death, either through America's Funniest Home Videos or World's Dumbest Cops, that the idea of "reality" TV--or movies--just isn't that titillating anymore. God knows, audiences have come a long way since Candid Camera. Too bad no one told Berkowitz that.

20 Dates opens Friday, April 2