Exposed, originally supposed to be titled Daughter of God, is a movie that allegedly the studio ripped out of the director’s hands and bungled the landing so badly that the director did not want his name associated with it. As far as I can tell from my cursory research, it was his first and last time directing a feature film. So why would I watch it? Keanu Reeves. I didn’t even know what it was about.
Exposed has gradually intersecting storylines between a woman and Reeves’ character, a cop at his lowest point, and Reeves at his worst hair. The woman believes in miracles, but her life begins to slowly go down the drain as her brush with the supernatural increases, and shockingly no one decides to conduct an intervention or get her help. Reeves is investigating the murder of his partner. There is also a side story of how the local crime boss is reacting to increased scrutiny with a heavy hand and characters that you barely recognize on screen and off are in danger and dropping like flies. A better movie would make us wonder if Reeves’ character or the bad guy was doing it or even better, if Reeves and the woman randomly end up together, but nope. The bad guy’s name is Black. He also happens to be black. A black bad guy can be delightful, but all of this is a bit on the nose. Cops are corrupt and physically abusive, including Reeves (noooooooo, not my baby). I swear that the police chief, played by the legendary Christopher McDonald, only had people milling around his office so he could kick them out whenever Reeves appears. The story feels cut with a lawn mower, not an editor, so I found myself wondering if it was going to ever come together. It never really does though you can kind of see what was supposed to happen, but even the original intention feels heavy handed. A really beloved dog dies, and it screams doom for another character. Come on!
Is it worth it to watch it for the cast? No. If Mira Sorvino ever decided to file a civil suit against Harvey Weinstein for destroying her career, she would use Exposed as Exhibit A and win. Her character arc is a microcosm of the problems with this movie. She starts as a grieving widow fiercely protective of her husband’s reputation while badmouthing him to any sympathetic ear so she rebukes Reeves’ character rather harshly and personally, which makes sense until she starts to hit on him, which is reasonable, but it happens within minutes of the excoriating. One of the major problems of this movie is that when it depicts women characters, it feels as if they are being written from the outside, not with empathy. In other words, these bitches be crazy.
Because I watch a lot of films, I instantly knew the real mystery behind Exposed. There is a naked, visual simulacrum of Irreversible, including the setting, which is impossible to miss if you’re even slightly familiar with French Extremism. The magical realism surprised me and felt inadvertently funny though it was obvious that wasn’t the intention; however I was not feeling the Pan’s Labyrinth homage, not even if I squinted and turned my head. For instance, there was the snowy owl humanoid of death. The difference between being inspired by and ripping off someone else’s work is whether or not it works, which it didn’t. Then there is a Fight Club element that I did not want to believe was happening though I did not completely grasp how it leaked into other characters, but it did. There were even some Donnie Darko elements with the vocals, which I am uncertain whether or not that reference was intentional. Maybe a dash of Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrera and Werner Herzog can sleep like babies because no one is coming for their crowns.)
Maybe Daughter of God would not have been as bad as Exposed, but it was never going to be good. The story was supposed to solely focus on the woman, who was sympathetic, but never felt relatable or realistic and was plagued by tropes. Instead the studios chose to expand Reeves’ role in the film. I know that the movie was aiming for elevated artsy fare, a nuanced psychological exploration of trauma, but it feels as if it is avoiding a more delicious, lower genre that can also accomplish that purpose, the revenge movie. What a missed opportunity, especially if it was fully embraced then elevated! The movie suffers from an identity crisis that the studios exacerbated. Also Batman Returns called, and it wants its storyline back. The movie wants to do a lot when it just needed to have one element that felt authentic or real. Also Americans can rarely successfully pull off magical realism. The greats that this movie actively seeks to emulate did not start their films with these images. These iconic images were produced after decades of work. It is better to develop your own voice. In spite of studio butchery, Supernova and Judy Garland’s A Star Is Born still manage to shine and signal to viewers that it would be better if left on its own.
Fortunately I saw Exposed under the best conditions with a close friend who is also a Reeves fan, fully consented to watching a poorly reviewed film and was willing to treat the experience like Mystery Science Teacher 3000 so we crap talked throughout the entire film in my living room with a full belly and nothing better to do. At the end of the day, if you don’t pay any money, it is possible to have a good time if you approach the experience with the right mindset, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you. For the record, I would have happily watched Daughter of God with Ana de Armas at the helm and Reeves in the periphery because it is about quality, not quantity, and she more than held her own in a movie with him before, Knock Knock, which kind of led me to this one.
Also in spite of my harsh review, I hope that the director hasn’t given up on film and is still doing what he loves. It was bad, but not Uwe Boll bad, and Boll never gets deterred. I would deliberately give him a chance and pay to see his next film in the theater so studios would at least learn a lesson in the only language that they speak: money. No promises on the third film if the second sucks.