THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED
Directed by Josh Safdie
Produced by Brett Jutkiewicz, Zachary Treitz, Sam Lisenco, Safdie & Alex Orlovsky
Written by Safdie & Eleonore Hendricks
Released by IFC Films
USA. 71 min. Not Rated
With Eléonore Hendricks & Josh Safdie
 

Like that over-referenced American Beauty scene with the whirling plastic bag blowing in the wind, The Pleasure of Being Robbed honors the beauty of life’s flaws and distractions. No, it’s not another dark indie that shoves reality in our face. It’s more of an inquisitive poem about the quirks and fragile social conventions of New Yorkers.

Petite, raggedy Eléonore (co-writer Eléonore Hendricks) casually drifts through gray Gotham streets stealing handbags, cars, and, at one point, even a litter of kittens. Not quite a thrill-seeking Wynona Rider, and not a street urchin either, Eléonore steals senselessly, driven by uncontrollable curiosity to look through strangers’ things. Acting entirely oblivious to social or legal norms, she operates with grace, taking bags from under a victim’s nose (often with a smile or a pleasant interaction) and walking only a few blocks away before sitting down on a stoop to enjoy the spoils.

Eléonore’s childlike sense of entitlement to a piece of someone else’s life is hypnotic. Upon taking a purse with a set of car keys, she instinctually looks for the car and gets in. She doesn’t drive, and she doesn’t need a place to sleep. It’s just an unshakable addiction, which at first looks like a foible, but by the film’s end, shows itself to be a disease.

An obstacle course for ADD sufferers, The Pleasure of Being Robbed is a film about distraction that ends up distracting itself. When Eléonore runs into a friend (lackadaisically but sweetly played by Safdie) and accidentally agrees to drive him to Boston, their uninspired, mostly dialogue-free road trip pointlessly commandeers the better part of the film. It’s almost as if Safdie momentarily loses interest in his project or uses the trip as an intermission for his one-woman show, fearing that it takes more than a troubled drifter to fill a feature.

Perhaps it does. A short film may have distilled the surreal elements of Eléonore’s personality and reduced her character to an idea. Either way, her persona—effortlessly embodied by the actress—is an original and valuable addition to independent film. Yana Litovsky
October 3, 2008