Ivan Martin and Michael Godere, the co-leads, co-writers, and co-producers of the new indie film Loitering with Intent, risk a dangerous amount of goodwill in the construction of their story. Playing what feels like an almost entirely autobiographical duo–Martin is Raphael, a raffish actor/bartender and Godere is his more uptight friend, writing partner, and fellow struggling actor Dominic–the two dominate the first half-hour of this 75-minute trifle before ceding the floor to familiar and exceedingly more charismatic performers like Sam Rockwell and Marisa Tomei. While seeing Rockwell and Tomei bounce off each other is always a welcome addition to pretty much any movie, once they grab focus in Loitering with Intent, it’s difficult to feel like what led up to their connection was worth the wait.
Within the first few minutes, Martin and Godere’s script dispenses with the vagaries of setting up their lead characters in a rapid-fire montage: Raphael has settled into life as a bartender slightly better than Dominic, but both still love to perform and keep waiting for that big break in spite of letting down those close to them. (Dominic has some kind of relationship that’s given the briefest of mentions, making it quite pointless.) They might not have to wait any longer, though, once an agent friend (Natasha Lyonne) becomes interested in their noir script and may be willing to pay them for the script if they can deliver in two weeks. The only problem is that Dominic and Raphael may have a great idea for a noir script but no actual script; thus, they hightail it to Dominic’s sister’s (Tomei) house for an intense bout of writing that’s swiftly interrupted by the aforementioned sister; her on-again, off-again boyfriend (Rockwell); his brother (Brian Geraghty);, and their partying distractions.
The high-concept nugget at the core of the film–can the leads scrape together enough of a story in the next two weeks and get paid?–is solid enough, considering how quickly Dominic and Raphael find themselves arguing over the direction of their concept as well as whether or not it’s even worth it to write instead of just relax in the country. Once Tomei’s Gigi and her various pieces of emotional baggage trailing behind arrive, it’s as if Martin and Godere, as well as director Adam Rapp, just lose interest in the setup and prefer to let Rockwell and Tomei do their thing. The relationship between these new characters is suitably on edge throughout–Rockwell’s natural charisma is toned down here, allowing his squirrelly personality to seem just menacing enough–and even when they come close to reuniting, it’s tinged with a sense of impending violence.
That’s all well and good, of course: the moment where Rockwell’s character sings an old Bing Crosby song to woo Gigi is sweet as well as fine proof that he’s got a good singing voice. However, when Martin and Godere revisit the whole reason why their characters are present even as spectators for this drama, Loitering with Intent begins to crumble once more. The story of two working actors trying to get ahead in New York is, by itself, overdone; this movie barely tries to offer a new take on the familiar beats. Rapp’s direction is unobtrusive, squarely focusing on the actors at this idyllic domicile. And so it’s all on them to make the story work, but it’s only because actors like Sam Rockwell are present that any of it approaches being tolerable, yet alone insightful.
