Python Hyena The Anniversary Party (2001): Dir: Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh / Cast: Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Gwyneth Paltrow: Detailed look at truths and secrets harboured by couples. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming celebrate their sixth anniversary after a year separation. He is a novelist casting a former girlfriend in a film version of his latest work. They invite friends including real life couple Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. Kline is a former co-star of Leigh's, and Cates paused her career to raise a family. Realistic yet disjointed with buried secrets surfacing. Cumming and Leigh show great potential as first time directors. They manage to keep track of subplots surrounding the ensemble cast. Leigh conceals her resentment while Cumming verges upon crumbling. They both must face facts within their marriage including the false front they display amongst their peers to give the illusion that they are a happy couple. As the evening wears on truths surface that threaten to traumatize their marriage. Kline and Cates display wonderful chemistry that very well may be true in reality. They are observers but not imitators. Gwyneth Paltrow appears as an actress and former girlfriend of the Cumming character. Engaging film about relationships that generates great potential from both its leads in front and behind the camera. Score: 9 / 10

Heidi Caldwell I can't for the life of me understand why this movie is rated as highly as it is. Was it the worst movie I've ever seen? No. It was, however far from the best. I think this movie would be interesting to those who work in the film industry, an actor, director, etc. But to everyone else, this movie comes off as extremely pretentious and preachy. I felt like the basic message of the movie was "Hey, we actors lead really difficult lives, and you should feel bad for us." What this film forgets is that everyone has trials and tribulations, that's life. One of my favorite movies is "Lost in Translation", which also is about an actor unhappy with life. However the great thing about LIT is that the main character actually does other things besides moan and groan about how awful his life is. very funny, entertaining movie, unlike AP. Basically, my complaint about this movie is that there was an endless amount of unnecessary drama over problems in the character's lives, and the problems weren't even that bad in comparison to what some people go through. What's more, I found all the characters annoying and completely selfish. If you are able to relate to the characters, you may enjoy this movie, however I found it impossible. Not for me, I'm afraid.-Heidi

blanche-2 Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason-Leigh are Joe Therrian and Sally Nash, a successful novelist and actress throwing "The Anniversary Party" in this 2001 film written and directed by the two stars. Other guests include Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Beals, John C. Reilly, Parker Posey, Jane Adams and Gwyneth Paltrow. Cumming and Leigh play a couple celebrating their sixth anniversary, though they have been estranged and are just getting back together. Problems arise almost immediately - Joe has been hired to direct the screenplay of his novel and wants a young actress (Paltrow) to play a role everyone assumes is based on and intended for Sally. He invites the actress to the party, making Sally furious. Then the neighbors have to be invited (John Benjamin Hickey and Posey) because of an ongoing fight over Joe and Sally's dog Otis barking and enraging the neighbors. As the guests start to arrive, we see some interesting dynamics forming: a married couple (Adams and Reilly) who have just had their first baby and left him with a sitter; she's a neurotic, nearly anorexic working actress and he, the director of Sally's latest film, is unhappy with Sally's performance; a close friend of Joe's (Beals) who's a little too close to him and disliked by Sally; a married couple (Kline and Cates) who bring their two children to the party (Kline and Cates' real-life children) - he's Sally's costar and she gave up show business, etc. When the ingénue arrives with Ecstasy, the party takes a turn, and it's not for the better.This is an interesting film, helped greatly by the acting and the relaxed, almost improvisational feel of dialogue. Leigh and Cumming are cognizant in their writing and direction that this is Hollywood, where people are more self-absorbed and overdone than the norm. When Sally and Greta (Cates) have a huge discussion about child-bearing and Joe's inability to grow up, you can't take it seriously - they're both on Ecstasy and have the intensity of two high-schoolers, where everything is the end of the world. The scene is deliberately that way - they're on drugs. When Joe tells Sally he never considered her for the part in the movie because she's too old, we know it's a sore subject he didn't want to bring up. Meanwhile, the uptight, non-show biz neighbors watch the activity in amazement, the wife wanting to belong, the husband, a recovering alcoholic, afraid that she does. The film ends abruptly with nothing really resolved. The end of the film becomes a mini-version of "Long Day's Journey Into Night," and, almost like that famous play, one gets the feeling that after this night of Ecstasy, overwrought emotions and devastation, it will all begin over again today.Everyone is excellent, and that's not to say they're particularly likable. Jane Adams, Mel of "Frasier" fame leaves you wondering if she'll make it to the baby's first birthday; Kevin Kline, as usual, gives one of the best performances as a handsome leading man who "has a window" available for Joe's film; Jennifer Beals gives her character a nice, Hollywood intensity, making the most of lines like "he's magnificent when he's with you." Paltrow is perfect as the airhead ingénue, fawning all over Sally and saying exactly the wrong things ("I've watched your movies since I was a little girl") and floating around on another plane. Riley, Posey, and the rest of the cast are uniformly strong.Cumming is surprisingly believable as Sally's husband. Greta refers to him as sexually ambivalent, and he pulls that off rather than seeming completely gay - he is most famous for his wonderful performance in "Cabaret" as the emcee - but it's obvious he's capable of more variety. The beautiful Jason-Leigh is sensational - she plays a woman who's a movie star at a time when the cameras aren't rolling, and with her interesting look and penetrating eyes, you can believe it. She's determined to make a go of it with her husband, but she has doubts - that's there too. She and Cumming pull out all the stops as the emotions and situations careen downhill.One quibble I have is the age issue of Sally being uncastable in a role calling for her to be in her twenties. I saw Jason-Leigh in Proof, where a big deal is made in the script of the character being 25. No one in the audience, myself included, realized that Jason-Leigh was, in fact, at 39, the oldest actress to have played it on Broadway. Even on film, she doesn't look 39 - in fact, in my opinion, though Paltrow was dressed more youthfully and wearing her hair younger, she looked much less vibrant than Jason-Leigh and, unlike Jason-Leigh, wasted. This was a conceit in the script that would have been better had the age of the character in Joe's novel been more like 18. Everyone knows with the right lighting and the right cast around someone, they can easily look younger.All in all, a good movie showing the miserable lives of the rich and famous, something poor folk like myself never mind watching.

jse126 I can't find much to say about this film. It was as dull as laundry day and filled with self important yet completely vapid people who cannot get along with anyone because they are all so concerned with themselves. They whine and moan and complain so much that after a while you'll feel like killing them all. It was made by Jennifer Jason Leigh, which to me is quite telling. This woman is regarded by many in Hollywood to be a great actress, which does in part explain why American movies are so awful. She is a dullard. Her name in the cast list of any movie is like a warning that a dull movie lies in store - and she MADE this one. I got the impression from the film that she thinks that it represents how people truly are and what "real life" is - but if for some reason she happens to be reading this, let me say emphatically to her that it does NOT. Of course it does paint a picture of her tragic little world of NY to LA movie types - but that is her problem, and there is a real life beyond Hollywood's artificial one (it's telling how these adults take Ecstacy, a kiddie drug that provides users with artificial emotions to go with their artificial lives). I do not want to be a part of that world and do not want to attend their parties, therefore I am sorry that I watched this. It might be a good wakeup call to anyone who dreams of movie stardom though. These people are so full of themselves because they are so empty of everything else. Actually I have to amend that statement - they are full of something else, though the twain may be hard to discern.This film, the type of people in it, and Jennifer Jason Leigh - they all deserve each other. I can't wait until Hollywood falls into the ocean.