Bubble (film)

Bubble
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by Gregory Jacobs
Written by Coleman Hough
Starring Debbie Doebereiner
Dustin James Ashley
Misty Dawn Wilkins
Music by Robert Pollard
Cinematography Steven Soderbergh
Edited by Steven Soderbergh
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • September 3, 2005 (2005-09-03) (Venice Film Festival)
  • January 27, 2006 (2006-01-27) (United States)
Running time
 73 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office US$261,966[1]

Bubble is a 2005 film directed by Steven Soderbergh. It was shot on high-definition video.

It featured some unusual production aspects. In traditional terms, the movie has no script. All lines were improvised according to an outline written by screenwriter Coleman Hough, who previously teamed with Soderbergh on Full Frontal. Bubble was shot and edited by Soderbergh under the pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard (taken from his father's given names and his mother's maiden name, respectively).

The film uses non-professional actors recruited from the Parkersburg, West Virginia / Belpre, Ohio area, where the film was shot. For example, the lead, Debbie Doebereiner, was found working the drive-through window in a Parkersburg KFC.

Bubble was released simultaneously in movie theaters and on the cable/satellite TV network HDNet Movies on January 27, 2006. The DVD was released a few days later on January 31.

It was nominated for Best Director for Steven Soderbergh at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards.

Bubble is the first of six films Soderbergh planned to shoot and release in the same manner.

The score for the movie was composed by Robert Pollard, who lives in Ohio.[2]

Plot

The movie is about three people living along the Ohio River who are just able to make ends meet. The first character is Martha (Debbie Doebereiner), a portly middle-aged woman seen getting ready for work and taking care of her elderly father. On the way to work at the doll factory, she picks up co-worker Kyle (Dustin James Ashley). Kyle is a tall and thin young man who is intensely shy and very quiet, although he opens up with Martha. He is, as she tells him, her best (and perhaps only) friend, as she has to spend most of her time working and taking care of her father.

In order to meet demand, the doll factory hires Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins), an attractive single mother with a two-year-old daughter who used to work in a nursing home. Martha instantly notices a mutual attraction between Rose and Kyle, and begins to feel uneasy as Rose seems to single Kyle out and push Martha aside. Rose irritates Martha by asking her for a ride to her second job, though Martha agrees to drive her. Her second job being a housekeeper for a strict and wealthy woman, Rose takes a bath in her Jacuzzi knowing the client will be gone a long time, which further causes Martha to feel uncomfortable about the kind of person Rose is.

Rose later asks Martha if she would like to make a little extra money, as she has a date and needs a baby-sitter. Martha accepts but frames her response as if she is doing Rose the favor. It is not until Rose's date arrives to pick her up that Martha learns that it is Kyle. Martha feels left out and embarrassed that they did not tell her earlier that they were planning to date.

During the date Kyle and Rose share that they each dropped out of high school, Kyle because of having social anxiety disorder and Rose because she wanted to rebel. Later at Kyle's house, Rose gets him to leave the room while she steals money from his hidden stash, and gets away uncaught. When Kyle drops Rose off at home, he decides not to go inside with her because he felt a "weird vibe" from Martha earlier.

Almost as soon as Rose enters her house, her ex-boyfriend (who is the father of her child) barges in and accuses her of stealing money and marijuana from his house. They get in a shouting match and he eventually leaves. Martha sits silently on the couch while they argue. After he leaves, she asks Rose if he was her daughter's father. Rose angrily tells her to mind her own business.

The next morning the cops are at Rose's house, having found her dead. Neighbors called them when they heard her baby crying. There is no sign of forced entry. Strangulation bruises on her neck suggest that she was murdered. A detective then questions Rose's ex-boyfriend and Kyle, who each claim to know nothing about the murder. During this time, Martha is seen pawning jewelry (which she claims were inherited from family members) in order to afford some fishing equipment as a gift for Kyle. She also makes a trip to the beauty parlor. When she arrives at Kyle's house to give him the gift, he tells her of Rose's murder. Surprised, she says she knows nothing. When the detective talks to her, she repeats this.

During follow-up questioning, the detective tells Martha that the fingerprints found around Rose's neck match hers. He urges her to confess, as there can be no doubt as to the murderer's identity. Martha maintains her innocence. Soon the detective visits Martha's father, who is being cared for by someone else (revealed in the credits to be Martha's niece). When the detective tells Martha's father of her arrest, he seems more saddened than shocked.

Kyle visits Martha in prison. As they sit with a glass wall between them, Martha pleads with him to help her. She swears that she doesn't know what happened and that she did not murder Rose, though she mentions a headache and Rose's rudeness. Kyle appears wary of Martha and unsure. Later, in her jail cell, she sees a bright light, and a vision of Rose's dead body, wearing a watch she had stolen from her housekeeping job but claimed throughout the film it was an old gift. Martha then sees herself standing over Rose and she mutters, "Oh my God." Meanwhile, Kyle's mom is hired on at the doll factory to fill in the loss, and he continues to work his two jobs just as simply as before, seemingly unchanged by the situation.

Reception

Soderbergh was nominated for Best Director at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards for this movie.

References

  1. ↑ "Box Office Mojo: Bubble".
  2. ↑ Olsen, Mark (2006-01-29), "The Indie Boy in the Soundtrack Bubble", New York Times

External links

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