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  USA Films Liv Tyler, as Jewel, flirts with Detective Dehling (John Goodman) in Harald Zwart's comedy movie "One Night at McCool's." The film offers three men's different perspectives on one woman.

By Sophia Whang

Daily Bruin Contributor

The black comedy “One Night at McCool’s” reaffirms the darker side of human nature with a diverse cast including Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon, Paul Reiser, John Goodman and Michael Douglas.

“This is a comedy that I think people are liking because it is really human in a lot of ways,” said Liv Tyler at a Los Angeles press junket.

Tyler plays Jewel, a temptress who uses her body and beauty to manipulate the men who suddenly enter her life after one night at McCool’s.

“Though you see Jewel as being this goddess all the time, she is also a human and she’s making horrible mistakes all the time and doing ridiculous things. Everybody can relate to that,” Tyler said.

There seems to be no end to Jewel’s ridiculous behavior, but nothing will stop her from getting what she wants – the perfect house. McCool’s bar owner Randy (Matt Dillon) lets Jewel move in with him, while Randy’s uncle, Carl, (Paul Reiser) lets Jewel flirt with him in front of his wife. At the same time, Detective Dehling (John Goodman) lets Jewel replace the memory of his angelic wife.

Everybody wants Jewel, but each man wants her for a different reason and sees her fulfilling a specific need.

“It’s about how she affects the guys and how they want her to be something, depending on what’s missing in their lives,” Tyler said.

So each need is shown through a different perspective of Jewel, as the same scenes are often played over again, letting Jewel shine in a different light, depending on who’s telling the story.

The original script at one point had the real Jewel at the beginning and at the end, but Tyler said that was one of the first things to be edited out.

“The movie is more about perception than anything else,” said director Harald Zwart. “It’s not how we see the person, but how the guys see her. It’s about how people remember and how sometimes people just don’t remember.”

Because Jewel’s character represents the ideal woman to so many men in the movie, the perfect actor had to be chosen.

“We always knew that Liv was the one to get first, and once she was on board, we wanted to build the movie around her and try to find three guys that were different from her,” Zwart said.

  USA Films Matt Dillon and Liv Tyler share an intimate moment in the recently released comedy “One Night at McCool’s.” “She was also the obvious one because I really wanted someone that was as appealing to women as she was to men,” he continued. “I knew that Liv had that quality and could pull it off. She has to be able to kill somebody and make people still like her.”

Released by Michael Douglas’s production company, Further Films, the film lends itself to quite a bit of violence as a black comedy that emphasizes both outrageous and serious elements. Tyler, however, may even be able to make the violence appeal to women.

“She can appeal to women if the violence is the portrayal of the power of women,” said Neil Malamuth, UCLA professor of psychology and communications, whose research interests include mass media and aggression. “Violence for the gaining of resources will be perceived differently by women than the violence in a solely sexual context.”

Although the movie glorifies violence, Tyler said that her character is not meant to be in bad taste.

“I’m not a big fan of violence and of guns, but it’s a part of life,” Tyler said. “I’ve seen more violence in reality everyday than I do in movies. We’re surrounded by it, so we shouldn’t shelter it away and act like it doesn’t exist.”

For Zwart, the repercussions of violence should not be taken lightly. He even decided to kill a certain character off because of his despicable behavior.

“For me, violence has a serious consequence, and the guys are doing it to themselves,” Zwart said.

On a brighter note, despite violence, deception and tons of beguiling, the film shows humans aspiring to reach dreams.

“Everybody has a dream – something about yourself that you’re not happy with that you want to change, something material or physical you want,” Tyler said. “That’s just what Jewel’s doing … in a psychotic, warped way. She’s trying to get to that dream.”

So if the violence and the desire to attain a dream is not appealing to audiences, the explicit car wash scene, which still makes Tyler blush, may just press the right button.

“Sometimes it would be really shocking to watch the playback and see something that I did,” Tyler said. “I never knew I had that in me.”

FILM: “One Night at McCool’s” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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