Helter Skelter

Director: Mika Ninagawa
Starring: Erika Sawajiri, Nao Omori, Shinobu Terajima
Time Out rating:

Erika Sawajiri is out of control. There's been a fortunate coincidence of life and art in the run-up to the release of Helter Skelter, Mika Ninagawa's depiction of a top model whose life begins to unravel. The film's scandal-prone star cancelled her publicity commitments back in May, citing nervous exhaustion, although the weekly tabloids were quick to push a more salacious, drug-related explanation. Whether it's genuine or an I'm Not Here-style PR gambit, the effect is the same: people are going to be talking about this film for quite a while.

Given the circumstances, Helter Skelter is about as hysterical as it needs to be. Sawajiri delivers a committed, intermittently barmy performance as Lilico, the cover girl whose flawless good looks are the result of extensive – and far-from-permanent – plastic surgery. When her body begins to deteriorate, so does her mind, prompting a descent into nuttiness that's like Requiem for a Dream on a supermodel diet. While other actresses might have invested this role with a little more nuance, it's hard to imagine them making it as car-crash riveting as Sawajiri does – or indulging the male audience with such a scant disregard for clothing.

Hers isn't the only bit of inspired casting, either. Almost without fail, the support players are brilliantly chosen, whether it's rich playboy Takao (fellow scandal magnet Yosuke Kubozuka), frumpy manager Michiko (Shinobu Terajima), rival model Kozue (Kiko Mizuhara) or Kaori Momoi, on steal-scening form as the faded beauty who runs Lilico's agency. Only Nao Omori's turn as police officer Asada fails to click, the actor struggling to make his comicbook dialogue sound convincing as he paces around an office that looks like it was lifted wholesale from a cheap TV drama.

Mind you, those scenes are a rare blip in what's otherwise a ravishing film to look at. Much like in her directorial debut, 2006's Sakuran, Ninagawa opts for sensory experience over narrative coherence, letting the visuals do the legwork when the story itself falters. The stark, occasionally grotesque artwork of Kyoko Okazaki's original manga is replaced by a far more vibrant palette; Lilico's apartment, where much of the action takes place, is a riot of saturated rouge, drapes and floral wallpaper, with an enormous set of lips plastered across the windows. Does she bathe in a tub scattered with rose petals at one point? You betcha.

But production design – even production design as good as this – can only get you so far. Given her background in fashion photography, you might have thought Ninagawa would have something more insightful to say about this most superficial of industries. Yet she seems more interested in surface dazzle than human drama. Anyone hoping for the dark psychological drama of Pedro Almodóvar's surgery-themed The Skin I Live In – or, indeed, Okazaki's manga – is likely to be disappointed by this immaculate confection. Beauty is skin deep; so, alas, is Helter Skelter.

Helter Skelter opens nationwide on July 14