Map to the Stars

Several years after setting her family’s house on fire, newly rehabilitated Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) returns to Los Angeles where she befriends aspiring actor/writer/limo driver Jerome (Robert Pattinson) and finds work as an assistant to Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), a fading actress who lives in the shadow of her late mother. Coincidentally, Havana receives treatment from Stafford Weiss (John Cusack), a psychologist to the stars and Agatha’s father. Along with his wife Cristina (Olivia Williams), Stafford manages the career of their 13-year-old son, petulant but popular actor Benjie (Evan Bird). While Agatha’s return threatens to upend the Weiss family’s ambitions, a remake of one of her mother’s films drives Havana into a determined frenzy to win the leading role.

From body horror to organized crime, the subjects of David Cronenberg’s films have varied greatly during his long career. His latest fixations seem to be turning a critical eye toward power and influence and Robert Pattinson riding around in limousines. Whereas 2012’s Cosmopolis took on Wall Street, Map to the Stars is a vicious, if uneven, takedown of Hollywood.

Regardless of the subject, there is an inscrutable strangeness that permeates much of Cronenberg’s work, and Map to the Stars is no exception. Characters repeat mantras, are haunted by judgmental apparitions, and generally seem to be playing with less than a full deck of cards upstairs. Were this done entirely tongue-in-cheek, it would have served the movie’s satirical aims quite well. Instead, Map to the Stars isn’t content with merely being darkly humorous; it wants to be contemplative and tragic as well. The resulting tonal whiplash – more on that in a moment – makes it more than a little hard to take.

Despite the murky ambitions of Bruce Wagner’s script, the cast is mostly game. Wasikowska is excellent as a tempest behind a low-key façade, but between this and Stoker, she should take care to avoid typecasting. Though Moore’s aging diva is more caricature than character, she nails it, switching from pathetic tantrum to condescending bravado in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, Cusack is downright scary as the manipulative, abusive, media-savvy Stafford while Pattinson and Williams add a touch of realism in more understated performances. The one weak link here is Bird, whose Justin Beiber-esque character is appropriately hateable but whose awkward line delivery and limited range reveal a lack of experience.

If Map to the Stars were split into two films – one a drama about a young woman trying to reconnect with her family and the other a snide sendup of fading stardom – each may have been successful on its own merits. But tying these two threads together within the same film causes them to weaken one another. As a result, Map to the Stars is a perfectly watchable mess. It’s sometimes shocking, sometimes funny, and sometimes moving, but the parts are greater than the sum.

7/10