OC Screenwriters Association

 “Polanski: Unauthorized” is the latest from quadrupal-threat writer/producer/director/actor Damian Chapa. Perhaps he should let one or two of those titles go and focus more on the things he does well.

 The movie itself, perhaps a familiar story to some, is based in the life of director Roman Polanski told non-linearly from his childhood in war-torn Poland to this arrest and 1st trial in the United States on rape charges.

 The non-linearity is perhaps the most problematic here and also at times the most compelling giving a surreal and unsettling feel to the film. Initially, it’s jarring to jump from time era to time era; once you get into the story it becomes less of a problem and contributes the nightmarish nature of Polanski’s life. But the effect is ultimately that you’re distanced from the central character a great deal because you’re only dipping into his life instead of working through chunk sequences of it. You never really get a strong sense of where he’s at emotionally at any given time.

 One example is after Tate’s horrible murder. I never was able to lock onto how that impacted him except for the occasional shadowy figures who haunted him while he was having sex with the 13-yr-old girl he was accused of raping.

 Another example is a scene where the young Polanski steals some bread and kicks a soldier between the legs to escape being caught. While this would have made a good point earlier in the film, the way it’s inserted (and I do mean inserted with little art,) very late in the film, has no point. We know by now that the young boy has been living on his own and his parents have been victims of death camps so why show this? What is the point? Also, a scene where Polanski’s mother spits in the face of her German tormentors, while powerful in its execution, had no real story pertinence for me.

 Too many times, Chapa shows us material that we’ve either already covered or don’t need to see. This is a problem throughout. I think what was needed was for Chapa to step back and allow a screenwriter to at least tweak the material. The writer/director/producer/actor mantel in this case creates an incestuous relationship with the material and ends up weakening it.

 There is no doubt that Polanksi has had an interesting and terrifying life. From his childhood as a war refugee to the Manson cult murdering his wife and unborn child, the man himself has suffered enough physical and emotional pain to make strong men cringe. I wish I had a bit more insight into the man himself, though, rather than leave it to cliches like “I am who I am.”

 Chapa tries to point to a sort of “deal with the Devil” in the form of Anton LaVey - the founder of the Satanic church who was supposedly the technical advisor for the film “Rosemary’s Baby.” But there is no credible evidence that Levay had anything to do with the film and then, as detailed in this film, the subsequent Tate-Labianca murders that occurred in Hollywood while Polanski was apparently partying in London to satisfy his urge to “have a little fun” before he settled down to fatherhood. Or something like that.

 I’m not saying any of this is easy to do in a film. I know from experience how difficult it is to create a fictionalized account of someone’s life. But that’s the task. Bring insight - don’t just report. Perhaps had this story been told with more linearity we could have come away with more understanding - but as it sits, it’s too hard to maintain the many story threads and come to any sort of a conclusion about the man.

 The acting is credible. Chapa went for actors and actresses who looked like the famous people in Polanski’s life like Sharon Tate and Mia Farrow - he himself playing a credible Polanski - but the dude doing Sinatra was although the substitution of an actor to play Frank Sinatra in one sequence was frighteningly awful. He didn’t look, sound or act like Sinatra and it took you right out of the moment which was silly and non-essential anyway.

 I would recommend “Polanski: Unauthorized” but only barely. Perhaps had Mr. Chapa managed to make the Q&A at the Regency Theater I could have asked him about some of these hesitations. Unfortunately, he was hung up on business elsewhere and had to cancel his appearance.

 No doubt the film will benefit from the recent news of Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland but I question how many people actually care about this man’s story? I was but I’m a film person.

 So to those who have any interest in director Polanski, this movie will fill some holes. Otherwise, it’s a decent film but not nearly as compelling as it could have been.