IU grad transforms Plato

The Symposium," written, directed, produced and edited by IU alumnus Michael Wurth, is a smart dialogue film that takes an intriguing view of this masterpiece by Plato. And at a $30,000 budget, it's a solid production.\nFilmed during 10 days in March 2002, the movie is set in modern-day United States, and 95 percent of the action takes place in a small living room adorned with white furniture and a few vases. The cast of characters are all direct representations of the scholars from the Greek story, but with different names. \nToday's Socrates, Professor Christopher Klug, played by Joe Salazar, leads the cast in a drunken horse-and-gadfly examination of the concept of love. The arguments are typically the same as the ones expressed by the old philosophers. Dan Seki plays modern day Phaedrus, Drew Osgood, who claims the supremacy of a relationship between an older man and a young boy, while Stephanie Kleinbrecht, an updated version of Aristophanes played by Cheryl Bartlett, argues that love is the search for completion of the whole lost in the womb.\nBut one new interesting twist in the plot arises between Sen. Brian Watson, or Alcibiades, and Klug, as they get into a heated dispute because the Senator feels his love for his old professor is unrequited. Although this dynamic is not fully developed in Plato's work, Wurth believed Plato was speaking through Alcibiades to his old mentor Socrates.\nThe essential plot of the film is nearly an exact replica of the 2,500-year-old story. The aforementioned cast of characters meet at the house of Thomas and Cathy Enderson, the modern day Agathon and Eryximachus. They have congregated to celebrate the success of one of Thomas' plays. It soon becomes apparent that most members of the party are unimpressed with Thomas, and some even appear jealous.\nBut the martini acts as the central device of the film, getting each member of the party drunk to engage in indiscreet conversations about relationships and love. As the characters loosen up, so does the film, and the more enjoyable sections come after everyone is fairly inebriated. \nThe sets -- other than the living room there is only a kitchen and a police department examination room, of which its necessity is not immediately apparent to the viewer -- are simple but not shabby, reflective of a clean use of the modest budget. Typical of an independent film using borrowed SAG actors, the cast doesn't always mesh well together. At times inadequate timing results in awkward moments. It's unfortunate, especially because this is almost exclusively a dialogue piece, and timing is essential. \nBut the freshness of a 2,500-year-old script keeps the viewer interested, and smart-alecky quips from Michael Wisser, who plays Paul Bannister -- today's Pausanias -- bring some laughs. "The Symposium" is an efficient film worth watching.