Bursting the Bubble
Soderbergh Offers No Surprises

The film Bubble, by director Steven Soderbergh, is a story about a murder in a small, West Virginia town. The plot concerns the employees at a doll factory, who measure out their lives through lunch breaks. The film is not much of a mystery, per se, because it becomes fairly obvious who is going to die, why, and who is going to perform the grisly task. The rest is just waiting. Lots of waiting.

Bubble
Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins, left) joins her co-workers for lunch in the small town murder mystery Bubble. (Magnolia Pictures, 2006)
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: Coleman Hough
Starring: Debbie Doebereiner, Dustin James Ashley, Misty Dawn Wilkins

Rated R (for some language)
Running time: 75 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 1 out of 10.

The doll factory is where Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) and Kyle (Dustin James Ashley) work together. Martha is a single woman who lives with her invalid father. Kyle is Martha's "best friend," and they seem to have fallen into a daily routine that includes breakfast at the bakery and breaks together in the factory lunchroom. Their dialogue never seems more than the banal conversations that one has with co-workers.

This routine of Martha's existence is suddenly popped by the arrival of a new girl in the factory. Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins) is a single mother who has been hired as an airbrush artist to help with a large order. She makes friends with Kyle, the only person there who seems about her age. They spend the majority of their lunch break in the smoking lounge, removed from Martha who is now left alone. The events that follow are not unexpected or mildly surprising.

Soderbergh, who gave audiences such critically acclaimed movies as Traffic and Erin Brockovich, has narrowed his scope to tell a simple story. The problem is that Soderbergh works better with lots of star power. Bubble has none. The lead actors are all local folks who have no acting experience. Through no fault of their own, the principle cast are merely "acting" normal to capture an uneducated, low-income, small town mentality.

The plot is dull and the dialogue seems unscripted. When news of a murder is received, most of the characters barely respond. There is no surprise, no shock, no disbelief. In fact, the one constant throughout the film is the complete lack of emotion. The most believable performance comes from Rose's daughter (played by her real-life daughter Madison), who clearly does not want to be separated from her mother when Rose leaves for a date with Kyle.

As a film experiment, Bubble is mildly intriguing. What can a prominent director do with an inexperienced cast and only the most threadbare plot? The sad result is that the film seems too much like an experiment, the kind that a sophomore film student might dream up. Even Soderbergh could not make this film slightly interesting. Halfway through, it becomes laughable in its dullness.

Bubble is the first of six films by Soderbergh to be shot in high-definition for HDNet Films. The film is part of their "day-and-date" model that releases the film simultaneously in theaters, on DVD, and on cable television. The strategy has stirred up a great deal of controversy among theater owners, movie studios, and filmmakers.

Twenty years from now, it is likely that Bubble will only be remembered by film fans as the answer to the trivia question "What was the first film to utilize the day-and-date release strategy?" For such a monumental debate to have grown around such an unremarkable film is typical for Hollywood, which is often more sparkle than substance.