Deserving more attention than it received during its brief 1995 release, CLEAN, SHAVEN provides a novel, searing presentation of schizophrenia in this low-budget feature about a disturbed young man searching for his daughter.
Against the bleak suburban landscape of Miscou Island in New Brunswick, Canada, Peter Winter (Peter Greene) begins a search for his daughter, Nicole (Jennifer MacDonald), who had been taken from him by his ex-wife, Melinda (Molly Castelloe), following his mental breakdown some years earlier.
During Peter's journey, a detective, Jack McNally (Robert Albert), trails after Peter, who has become the prime suspect in a series of murders involving young girls.
Peter's road trip includes a visit to his mother, Mrs. Winter (Megan Owen), which only reminds him of his troubled past, and a stop at a motel, where Peter becomes increasingly tormented by the sounds he hears in his head. When Peter finally arrives at the town where he and his family used to
live, he tracks down and kidnaps Nicole. He then takes her to a playground where he tries to explain why he has been missing from her life. Detective McNally, who has been closely following Peter and fears for Nicole's safety, shoots and kills Peter. Soon after, however, the detective discovers
that he may have shot an innocent man.
Mental illness is difficult to represent dramatically. Over the years, mainstream cinema has seen fit to sensationalize and/or simplify the complexities of psychological disturbances. For instance, note how laughable such Hollywood "classics" as THE SNAKE PIT (1949) and THREE FACES OF EVE (1957)
seem today. Even the one film on which Sigmund Freud himself consulted, G.W. Pabst's SECRETS OF THE SOUL (1926), feels limited conceptually, if not artistically. Perhaps only the avant-garde (e.g. in the Japanese classic PAGE OF MADNESS [1936]) has been able to adequately approximate emotional
distress by refusing to straight-jacket the subject into the conventions of melodrama.
Lodge Kerrigan's directorial debut, CLEAN, SHAVEN, is unique because it combines both melodramatic narrative and avant-garde style. The first few reels of the film, in fact, are told almost exclusively from Peter's point of view, allowing the viewer to share his fragmented, hallucinatory world,
which is neither glamorized nor romanticized. Kerrigan uses negative screen space and an eerie guitar score to further establish the melancholy atmosphere, and the film's low budget works in favor of the barren mise-en-scene.
Thematically, too, CLEAN, SHAVEN expands upon the typical model used in other cinematic portraits of the mentally ill. The pathetic scene between Peter and his mother shows a dysfunctional family element at work, but refrains from using it to cast direct and exclusive blame on Peter's condition (a
la the PRINCE OF TIDES [1991] flashbacks). The trick ending also forces viewers to question both their own assumptions about the mentally ill and the societal stigmas that would lead to such attitudes. If anything, it is the detective who is more dangerous by the end of the story, and Kerrigan's
use of a Doppelganger effect between Peter and Jack underlines the point.
By telling the story from Peter's perspective, CLEAN, SHAVEN presents one unavoidable problem that may frustrate viewers. The ellipses created by the distorted point of view leave some unanswered questions and, at one early point, strongly suggest that Peter is indeed a violent individual. This
bit of "cheating" jeopardizes both viewer empathy with the character's plight, as well as a basic understanding of story events. (The grimly humorous self-wounding scenes of Peter digging at his scalp and finger creates another severe distancing element.)
Thus, CLEAN, SHAVEN's major strength also becomes its major weakness, but it is still a film well worth seeing--if only because it is different. (Graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment