On the surface Speed-the-Plow depicts a film producer’s struggle with the perennial conundrum of art or money. But in this recent production directed by Matthew Warchus this question becomes secondary to an exposition of a male relationship, and how this is configured when one is consumed with self-doubt and a desire to be ‘liked’.
Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum are excellent as the two film producers, and their inherent movie fame provides a neat irony, in that they too have been complicit in the Hollywood whirlwind. Spacey’s ‘Fox’ is presented in the first act as hyperactive, on coke, demanding coffee, bouncing around Gould’s (Goldblum) office. By contrast, Gould is easy with himself, excited, but relatively in control. The set in which their dynamic is revealed is authentically ‘Hollywood’, with a huge, modern desk, wooden floorboards, lights which resemble lighting equipment in films, glass blocks, and the obligatory brown leather sofa. The set also conveys Gould’s status as having only just arrived, since a step-ladder and paints are placed around the office; there are moving boxes; and the large poster for the wall is not hung. It implies that Gould’s success might be transitory and dependent on his next move: whether that be in favour of art or money.
This is not a real question for the producer since the option for ‘art’, a novel adapted to film about radiation and the end of the world is evidently dire and no match for a block-buster ‘prison movie’. Additionally, the proponent of ‘art’, Karen, Gould’s assistant is so unconvincing, not to mention slightly irritating that it seems impossible that she could win. It is hard to discern whether Laura Michelle Williams is merely reacting to an under-written part, or whether she is not up to the standard of Spacey and Goldblum. Her faux-American accent is grating and she is inconceivably, a real hustler, sleeping her way to the top.
Karen though, is a perfect foil for Goldblum’s acting abilities, which are consummately comedic. His lolling gait as he walks over to seduce her in his office is very funny, as too is the way he plumps cushions behind her in order to prepare for sexual consummation while she is talking earnestly about ‘truth’. Fox does not take her seriously either, scoffing at her noble ambitions. The men, in contrast to the simpering woman are, despite being not entirely wholesome, full of humour and excitement. This is the way the male partnership overtakes the philosophical question.
The final act in which Fox and Gould physically and verbally fight, sees a reversal of roles with Fox now in the authority chair, trying to get Gould back on side. That he succeeds is nigh on inevitable and achieves a strangely satisfying effect; you end up plumping for the money argument to win because the two men together is the better, and extremely entertaining, couple.
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