Cinema: Hurlyburly

The house is contemporary sterile. Its owners, casting agents played by Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey, are toxic male traditionalists. Their door is always open to other fringe types who drop in to gnaw on one another’s coke-blasted psyches and abuse any woman careless enough to enter their lair. David Rabe’s adaptation of his 1983 play offers irresistible acting opportunities: all the guys are villains, all the gals truly damaged victims, and everyone in a strong cast takes full advantage of his or her role. But styles of degradation change, and the piece seems dated, the characterizations, no matter how passionately rendered, more like exercises for an acting class than something we can connect with.

–By Richard Schickel