AUTO FOCUS (2002)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally reviewed in 2003)
I never watched "Hogan's Heroes" nor do I know much about the life and times of actor Bob Crane. Seeing this film, one is inclined to think that Bob Crane was a sexual carnivore who craved sex more than life itself. That may be true but there must be more to a man than what is portrayed here. "Auto Focus" is one strange film biography that places less emphasis on the inner workings of Crane's mind than it does on the life he led.
When we first meet Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), he is first working as a DJ for a local radio station in Los Angeles. He has a family to support including his trusting wife, Anne (Rita Wilson), and two children. Crane is offered a job as the lead in a series called "Hogan's Heroes." This is his surefire shot to fame and stardom and Crane accepts the job with delight (though at first he thinks of it as a career killer). The show gets high ratings and women come up to him and ask for his autograph, even when he meets a priest at a diner. The problem with Crane is that he is too easily seduced into a highly sexual lifestyle. One day, an audio/video salesman, John Carpenter (Willen Dafoe), literally becomes friends overnight when he takes Crane to seedy, topless bars and brings women back to his pad. Crane immediately begins his foray into nocturnal sexual activities, and starts filming them with a video camera. Carpenter and Crane begin watching their own sexual escapades on video, examining them and getting off on them. But as soon as we settle into the era of the 70's, we sense that the fun is gone, the colors are more muted and less cheerful (thanks to outstanding set design and art direction) and Crane, who still enjoys sex, is beginning to feel used by Carpenter. After all, if it hadn't been for Crane, Carpenter may not be getting laid at all. The resentment settles. Crane gets a divorce from his first wife, and after "Hogan's Heroes" is over, he is cast as the lead in a dismal Disney film called "Superdad." To make matters worse, Crane does dinner theatre to make ends meet.
"Auto Focus" is not an entertaining or an enlightening film, but it is fascinating in its restrained look at sleaziness in the 1970's after the sexual revolution took over. What is more fascinating is Bob Crane's likability factor and his big smile. Here is a man content with himself and with his sexual prowess (to the point that he gets a penile enhancement) yet we never sense anything other than sexual addiction. The man loves sex, but does he truly love his family? His second wife accepts his sexual appetite, but is there anything about this man that she truly loves? When Crane talks to his kids, he discusses how much he loves the color orange. Not one single conversation is ever carried by this man beyond the subject of sex. Either he is talking about it or he is doing it. And when his career suffers a number of setbacks, only his agent proves to be helpful. Crane never realizes that as healthy as his sexual appetite may be, it is also scandalous and immoral to others.
Greg Kinnear has Crane's likability factor down pat (though the real Crane looked far sleazier) and Willem Dafoe is as creepy and sympathetic as only Dafoe can be as John Carpenter. The problem is that director Paul Schrader and writer Michael Gerbosi never invest in these characters' souls. Crane's murder may have been caused by Carpenter (it is still an unsolved murder) but we never learn much about Crane. There just had to be much more to this man than being a likable sex addict.
