Vegas-Bound with God and Woody

"I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore" is writer/director Caveh Zahedi's homemade documentary about his road trip to Las Vegas with his estranged father and half-brother. It also offers Zahedi's attempt to prove the existence of God by simply letting the film happen without the conventional constraints of a script or even an intended plot.

Asserting, "This film is an experiment in faith," Zahedi demonstrates this belief in a higher order by filming extemporaneous situations as they unfold. But despite his film maker's constant reiteration of his belief that "What happens happens for a reason. Everything has a meaning," the neurotic and nervous director, who has often been called the Iranian-American Woody Allen, refuses to yield to Fate.

Constantly dictating the scenes in a passive-aggressive manner, Zahedi indeed resembles his Jewish counterpart as a control freak. The movie's few merits lie in Zahedi's documentary-like style, which exposes the dynamics of his relationships with his father and sibling. The method of allowing events to unfold carries potential for rendering a great film, but doesn't suit the nervous, controlling filmmaker. This ill-suited union only succeeds in begetting a drawn-out series of irritating, contrived and poorly shot scenes of a man exhibiting his warts.

The film opens on a black screen with Zahedi (Bobby) nervously asking his crew, D., Steve and Greg, who all play integral parts in this film, if they've begun rolling. As the blank screen fades into Bobby delivering a monologue, the debt to Woody Allen is evident (Allen often prefaces his movies by explaining his intent to the audience, most notably in "Annie Hall".)

But Bobby lacks the eloquence and focus of Allen, haltingly explains how he intended to make a scripted film about a road trip to Las Vegas with his estranged father, George (Ali Zahedi) and half-brother, Amin (Amin Zahedi). But Bobby could not procure the funding and instead he grabbed this opportunity to create a film that proves the existence of God.

His premise is that if God exists, then he can simply let the omnipotent Almighty take over and Zahedi will film what He lets happen. He believes God will create a fulfilling reconciliation between Zahedi and his estranged father, who left Bobby and his mother when Bobby was young. But even from this onset, he confesses he fears this may not be enough, "It's gonna be okay, but I find myself worrying all the time."

The next scene opens on the day before Christmas in George's home in Los Angeles, where Zahedi's teenage half-brother Amin refuses to do the movie unless Zahedi pays him more money. A flustered Zahedi wavers between angry coercion and pleading persuasion, only to be saved by his father, who agrees to pay Amin out of his own pocket.

Zahedi's inability to take control of his belligerent little brother illustrates another problem inherent in this movie. Zahedi purports to let God direct his film, but when he does strive to control a situation, he cannot. His insecurity as a person and a director hampers him from asserting his rights as the co-director) (God is billed as the other co-director) and member of this family.

Zahedi's problem is two-fold: he can't let go of control when he wants to, but when he does consciously attempt to take over, he fails. The audience experiences both these inabilities on the trip to Vegas. In the car, Bobby panics because to the evident lack of interesting events. He decides to reenact a scene where Amin yells at George, abandoning his entire premise for the movie. But the reenactment sounds contrived and Bobby despairs. The bumpy and tire-some car ride finally ends in their Las Vegas hotel suite.

Here Bobby confides his fears to the audience admitting, "I feel like a failure as a director. I wanna control it. I didn't want to. I wanted to let go of control. As much as I claim reality is enough, deep down, my fear is that it is not enough."

The disparity between this confession and Bobby's initial speech on his faith in God reflects the schizophrenic quality of the movie which produces a dizzying effect, also revealing the ill-suited merger of this amorphic style and Bobby's own controlling impulses. Questions to the crew like, "Should I just let [Amin] be in a bad mood?" further illustrate Bobby's incapacity for letting God take over.

The crowning example of Zahedi's failure as a believer in Fate and as a director happens on Christmas morning. Bobby has brought presents for his family and crew. Having anticipated problems, Bobby bought three hits of the drug Ecstasy, (one for each family member) to facilitate the emotional healing he longs for. This blatant imposition of artificial emotions, much less real emotions, by introducing a chemical signifies his failure to believe that God will "send down a miracle."

But this betrayal of his initial premise does not phase Bobby. Instead, he cajoles, yells, whines and wheedles George and Amin. Indeed, he even disregards his father's heart problem by blatantly lying to him about the dangerous effects of Ecstasy. After five grueling hours, Bobby relents and takes his hit of Ecstasy while George and Amin retreat to the gambling tables in the lobby.

After this prolonged exercise in futility, the audience identifies with Amin's anger and irritation with Bobby for trying to coerce a 63-year-old man with a heart condition to take a dangerous drug. Even more amazing is Bobby's impotence in effecting his desired outcome. Indeed this movie purports to follow spontaneous scenarios, but when Bobby does attempt to control his family, he only succeeds in torturing them and the audience.

Zahedi's impotence as a director also affects the film technically. Never graduating beyond the realm of home video, the camera sits on a tripod or occasionally gets plucked off its stand producing a dizzying effect, only to bounce on the camera operator's shoulder, creating the horror of nautical nausea.

People walk and stand in front of the camera which often focuses on nothing while the characters speak off-camera. Although Zahedi strives for a non-directional style, he shirks even the most elementary responsibilities of a director. Granted his crew, D., Greg and Steve, are accountable for many of these technical difficulties, but Zahedi seldom worries about the logistics of the actual filming of his movie.

When they finally get back to Los Angeles, George dispenses gifts to the crew, giving a bottle of wine to D. This angers Bobby because D., in addition to being his ex-girlfriend, has a drinking problem.

Finally, the film ends as it began, with a monologue from Bobby during which he suddenly recognizes his father's gift to D, as a generous and non-judging act. Erasing his former anger towards George for encouraging D.'s drinking. Bobby realizes how beautifully accepting his father can be. Tearfully concluding that this must be the miracle he hoped for, he restores his faith in God and in the success of his movie.

While this touching end renews Bobby's faith, it does not provoke the same tearful emotion from the audience. It only punctuates the personal and irrelevant story Zahedi offers with an inaccessible emotion. Although this experience proves cathartic for Zahedi, he does nothing to add pertinence to his story. The characters have been too removed to empathize. He makes no conclusions; he offers no advice. In the end, we know he doesn't hate Las Vegas anymore, but who cares?