Whit Stillman's Film, Metropolitan

Metropolitan, a 1900 film directed by Whit Stillman, is an interesting piece of work. The film is mostly driven by dialogue and there is not a lot that happens. Set in the twinkly and fashionable city of New York the film is about a group of upper class young teenagers who've just come back from first year at college and are looking for love, stability and purpose in life. The film begins with the central character, Tom Townsend, who attends a dress ball and meets by accident a group of Upper East Side socialists (who are the same age as Tom). When Tom gets invited to the groups after-hour party, Tom realizes he is a lot in common with the group he's just met. All come from wealthy families, and all are highly opinionated about a variety of subjects (like literature and society).

At the party, Tom meets Nick, the most talkative and cynical man within the group, Audrey, a shy and well read girl who develops a crush on Tom very quickly, and Charlie, a quite annoying moralistic nerd who has a deep affection for Audrey. These characters are so well drawn out by the dialogue that I felt I knew so much about the characters but also did not know enough to befriend them. Each character on the outside seemed respectable and mannerly but all of them had fragility within them. Tom talks so confidently about the novels of Jane Austen that it comes as a surprise when he admits to Audrey (who loves Regency era literature) that he's never read any of Jane Austen's works. Nick is also a complex character and terribly egocentric figure. When he declares, "It's a bit arrogant of people to go around worrying about those less fortunate," I just wanted to smack him on the face and tell him to wake up to the world. All the characters seem so lost and confused to what the world is (out of touch), that they say such foolish things. While characters like Audrey and Charlie are sensitive to human feelings and are aware of a world around them, characters like Nick and Tom seem indifferent and unchangeable characters.

While I loved the dialogue and the rhythm of the film, the film started to bore me as it continued. I never knew such people lived these lifestyles and although it was interesting and hilarious, I couldn't cling on to one character I liked or admired. At the end of the film, I was not surprised what happened. I expected the Rat Pack to go and live the same as they'd always had done. When Nick says, "I've always planned to be a failure anyway, that's why I plan to marry an extremely wealthy woman," I found it funny when he said it. But after having watched the film, I ceased to laugh.