Believe
it or not, some men working in the fashion industry are looking to exploit
young models. Equally shocking, some aspiring models try to sexually manipulate
men to further their careers. Seriously, its all true. These are the sort of blockbuster
revelations that are luridly illustrated in Mads Matthiesen’s trashy drama The Model (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Gangly
young Emma Whatever has come to Paris to make it as a model. She has a slimy
but legit agency and a mean waif image that always seems to have its champions.
Unfortunately, her first shoot ends in disaster when she cannot act sexy enough
for moving-and-shaking fashion photographer Shane White. However, she manages
to act plenty sexy when they later hook-up at an in nightclub. From there, they
quickly become an item and her career takes a dramatic upswing.
Of
course, nothing is really that easy. First she crushes the spirit of her high
school sweetheart, Frederik. Soon jealousies lead to betrayals and before you
know it, Emma is wailing: “Shane, come back.” Okay, not really. Instead she
deceptively fools him into a temporary rapprochement. Yet, this is perfectly
representative of the film’s flaws. Frankly, Emma is so vacuous and morally pliable
right from the start, there isn’t much of a curve to her downward spiral. It is
just incident after incident of models and fashion professionals acting
reprehensibly.
Occasionally,
the film approaches a provocative issue, but Matthiesen and his
co-screenwriters Martin Zandvliet and Anders Frithiof August always manage to
nimbly skirt around them. This specifically includes the nature of Emma’s
beauty. Real life model Maria Palm has her best moments explaining how her
spindly look was often mocked in Denmark but is coveted in the Paris fashion world.
Could it be that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder? Maybe, but it
still seems like Claire Tran (who plays White’s assistant) is more attractive
than the emaciated, sunken-eyed models her boss shoots.
Speaking
of pronounced skull structures, Ed Skrein still immediately brings to mind
Skeletor from the Masters of the Universe.
Regardless, we can certainly buy him as the soulless, predatory White. To her
credit, Maria Palm craters quite effectively. As Frederik, Marco Ilsø looks
like Zac Efron, but he lacks the equivalent presence and talent level. However,
Charlotte Tomaszewska (also a real life model) regularly upstages everyone as
Emma’s live-in frienemy, Zofia.
