Bad Behavior

Bad Behavior is one of the freshest and funniest films of the year. It’s also a good, matter-of-fact piece about marriage. In its own off-beat, off-center and ever-so-slightly askew way, this movie is simply great.

Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) and Sinead Cusack play a perfectly mismatched Irish couple living in London. He works for the Office of City Planning – and hates it. She’s stuck taking care of the house and kids, while hacking a part-time job at a bookstore – instead of pursuing the writing career she really wanted. She’s not too happy either. (Please remember, this is a comedy.)

Rea is a (typically Irish) master of puns, witty comments and sardonic jokes. He also (in a typically Irish fashion) uses his humor to mask his real feelings. Cusack repeatedly complains that she never knows where she stands with him. Nonetheless, she privately confesses to a friend that he’s the only man who can make her laugh. (This is a relationship movie that’s also a comedy.)

Phillip Jackson plays a Thatcher-era hustler who plays shell games with houses and rehabs. Cusack baby-sits for his kid, and he convinces her and Rea to let his guys renovate their bathroom. The workman are twins (both played by Phil Daniels) who can’t seem to agree with each other. (There’s some kind of political statement here, but it’s still a comedy.)

Meanwhile, back in daily life, Rea knows all too well that the good work he’s trying to do in city planning is going to be screwed over in back room deals. So he drinks a lot. Cusack is equally frustrated by her life. So she drinks a lot. The whole film plays like a boozy improv by John Cassavetes in a Robert Altman movie.

All of which makes Bad Behavior funny. Really, truly, honestly funny.