A warning to all readers: This French film written and directed by Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus) is the kind of work that forces people to extremes of loving it or hating it. There seems to be no middle ground, except perhaps for those who take seriously the philosophical underpinnings of the minimalist story. This is the approach we have taken, and let's hope it sheds some light on what transpires during this two-hour drama with very little dialogue, frontal nudity, and a very violent finale.
American photographer David (David Wissak) and his girlfriend Katia (Katia Golubeva) leave Los Angeles in his red Hummer and head off to the desert where he hopes to find an appropriate setting for a magazine photo shoot. Although physically attracted to each other, David and Katia have trouble communicating. He speaks some elementary French, which is the language she uses regularly. When Katia asks him what he is thinking, he refuses to respond. She sulks, and we begin to sense the gulf that exists between them. They manage a mutual appreciation of some of the initial sights they see in the desert including a field of windmills and a group of Joshua Trees. But for some reason, David seems completely oblivious to the danger they are putting themselves in as they putter around in the desert far from any help if their vehicle breaks down. They sunbathe nude on the top of some rocks and then make love in the swimming pool at a motel.
There is a nasty edge to some of their sex that brings out a primal sound from David during climax. In one of the most revealing scenes, he pleasures himself while watching a man on the Jerry Springer TV show confess that he had sex with his daughter. Katia is shocked by this. Even more revealing is the lack of emotion he shows after bumping a three-legged dog with his vehicle. Katia, a genuine animal lover, sees a cruel and merciless side to her traveling companion that frightens her.
Ram Dass, the great spiritual teacher who has blended his experiences in the East and the West, has observed, "You can't buy into one-half of a polarity without getting the other half. You want good? You've got evil. You want pleasure, you've got pain. That's just the way it is." In Twentynine Palms, we take to the desert with David and Katia and watch them desperately reach out to each other for as much pleasure as they can get. In the process, they are isolated from the world around them and oblivious to the presence of other human beings. Eventually, David's compulsive sexual urges become the occasion for Katia's pain and some outsiders crash this party of two. For Dumont as well as for Lars von Trier (Dogville), the shadow side of America is violence, and it is not a pleasant sight.
