The House of Yes Movie Review
Parker Posey is an indie diva, and deservedly so, for few actresses worked harder to secure a niche in low-budget American movies of the ‘90s than she did. But The House of Yes? I can only wonder at the ventilation systems at the Sundance Film Festival for this gloppy mess to have been such a crowd pleaser. Lucretia Garfield and Ida McKinley were spared the indignity of becoming sexual icons after their husbands were assassinated in 1881 and 1901. But Jacqueline Kennedy spent her last 30 years enduring just about everything after witnessing the assassination of her husband in 1963. To her credit, she kept her sanity. Although The House of Yes emerged on film after her death, the original Wendy MacLeod play was a hit at San Francisco's Magic Theatre during her lifetime. Unsurprisingly, the play didn't travel well, but now we have Parker Posey as Jackie-O, preserved forever through the magic of the movies. If you want the plot, this is it: Marty Pascal (Josh Hamilton) brings his fiancee Lesly (Tori Spelling) home to meet Mom (Genevieve Bujold), brother Anthony (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and nutty twin sister Jackie-O. Marty resists and Lesly denies the obvious family games. If Marty had stayed away or remained resistant, there wouldn't be a 90-minute movie. Jackie-O tries to drag Marty into long-standing erotic re-enactments of November 22nd. Why not July 2nd or September 6th? Because there aren't any movies of Guiteau or Czolgosz in action! The House of Yes was clearly designed to be a smart comedy about incest. Scrub the flashbacks to the Kennedys and what's left is a dull look at five handsome but stupid characters. The fact that they're well played by the earnest cast, including Spelling, indicates that the talents of everyone would be better applied to less threadbare material. woof!
1997 (R) 90m/C Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Tori Spelling, Freddie Prinze Jr., Genevieve Bujold, Rachel Leigh Cook; D: Mark Waters; W: Mark Waters; C: Michael Spiller; M: Jeff Rona. Nominations: Golden Raspberry Awards ‘97: Worst New Star (Spelling). VHS, LV, Closed Caption