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Penn is reason enough to see 'Sorry, Haters'

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Before the year is out, the first wave of major studio films dealing with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, will be released. But it seems unlikely that any of them will be as bizarre, or as bizarrely compelling as Sorry, Haters, a slight independent feature about one woman's personal response to that fateful day. It is the sort of risky tale with touches of excess that many moviegoers will hate, but just as many will be unable to get it out of their heads.

IFC Films 'Sorry, Haters' B- The verdict: Penn is riveting as a mentally unhinged television executive who gets involved in the life of a Muslim cabby. Director: Jeff Stanzler Starring: Robin Wright-Penn, Sandra Oh, Abdellatif Kechiche, Elodie Bouchez Run time: 83 minutes Release date: March 1, 2006 Rating: Not rated. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Sorry, Haters'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Even those who reject the film will have to concede that Robin Wright Penn is can't-take-your-eyes-off-her riveting as Phoebe, the enigmatic programming executive for an MTV-like cable network called Q Dog. Only from a twisted mind like hers could come a show like Sorry, Haters, which flaunts the materialism of the wealthy and the resentments of have-nots toward them. That is hateful enough, but nothing like what transpires when she gets in a New York City taxi cab driven by a Syrian Muslim named Ashade (played by Tunisian Abdellatif Kechiche).

Something is not right about Phoebe, who pries into the personal life of Ashade and his brother, a Guantanamo detainee, offering sympathy and legal assistance. But those also seem to be what she needs, if her story of losing her child to an Asian home-wrecker (Sideways' Sandra Oh) has any truth to it. Phoebe is surely a nutcase, but one whose feelings of impotence and her attempt to overcome them has an oddly authentic ring, no matter how extreme her plan.

Penn is reason enough to see Sorry, Haters, exactly the kind of niche audience film that Palm Beach Community College's Emerging Cinemas series was designed to showcase. One minute she is composed, the next unhinged, then spewing ethnic invectives, then really losing it. It is an amazing performance, even if you cannot really buy the movie she is in, which seems likely.