Reflections

Enigma (Love Is a 4 Letter Word)

35mm, 71 min., 1999

Bilingual Max wants to be an American film star. The main problem: He's stuck in Amsterdam. To catch Hollywood's attention, Max grabs a not-so-steady-cameraman and decides to pitch the film Robert De Niro would kill to make if he were Dutch and overweight. Max completely trusts his cameraman's judgment, hoping that "movie magic" will somehow cover for the fact that his film (which still doesn't have an ending) fumes with the stench of warmed-over cliché. Of course, the joke is that De Niro wouldn't touch this project with a 10-foot pole. But Max is the type of gung-ho aspiring independent who bounces every reality check, and he surges forth with blind gusto. The inspired Enigma(Love Is a 4 Letter Word) presents itself as the cameraman's cut, which comically removes most of Max's strutting in favor of the more entertaining moments when he stumbles. Wrapping himself in his fictitious character, Max buys a gun. Suddenly he's embroiled in a hilarious real-life adventure far more entertaining than the project he set out to make. Like The Blair Witch Project, the one-of-a-kind Dutch film Enigma strikes you as one of those ideas so good, it's a wonder no one thought of it before.