'Focus' zooms in on depravity

There is Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), the family man, happily married to his high-school sweetheart for 15 years. He has three kids, attends church regularly and is the star of an unexpected TV hit in 1965, "Hogan's Heroes." Bob always smiles, lives by the motto, "Likeability is 90 percent of the battle," and says things like, "Well, gee-willikers," with so much sappy sincerity it could kill a Teletubby.\nThen there is Bob Crane, the fool of fame, whose life destroyed two marriages. Introduced to the new world of video by friend John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), Crane becomes a self-destructive sexual juggernaut whose excesses know no limit. Obsessively documenting every orgy, Crane lives his life by the motto, "A day without sex is a day wasted," until his skull is obliterated by his own tripod while he sleeps.\nThis is the story behind "Auto Focus," Paul Schrader's latest divulgence into the inherent moral deviance of man. Schrader, who penned the masterful "Taxi Driver" and directed the overlooked "Affliction," is consumed by his subjects, men who can't escape their own pitiful entrapments. He even feels a certain sympathy for them but only delivers an unflinching portrait that is hollowed of any sentimentality. With "Auto Focus," watch as Schrader moves us from the brightly-colored kitschy world of Crane's beginnings, into the voyeuristic bleached-out oblivion that becomes his end.\nKinnear turns in his best performance to date, running the full gambit from happy-go-lucky family man to delusional, washed-up sex addict. Don't confuse Crane's unsettling simplicity with the depth of Kinnear's performance, which is excellently understated. Likewise, Dafoe is nothing short of disturbing, playing Sony salesman Carpenter (not the horror director!), a seedy man who harvests Crane's shady side and is the implied killer in Crane's still-unsolved murder.\nAccompanied by Lynch staple Angelo Badalamenti's sparse and haunting score, Schrader, our modern-day master moralist, once again gives us a parable of disquieting proportions. "Auto Focus" is a fine film -- one I would definitely recommend -- that deals with exploitation without being exploitative. But don't be surprised if, when you leave the theater, you feel fully violated and a little empty inside.