First off, it really pissed me off that Neve Campbell got top billing for 54 when she spends less time in it than Michael York and that rappin' grandma from the Wedding Singer. It's also really unfair that it was hyped more for Mike Meyers' first dramatic performance rather than Ryan Phillippe's first film. They both do outstanding jobs, but the film is trash in the wake of Boogie Nights, and nothing can save 54 from this unfortunate comparison.
Yeah, that's right, 54 is basically Boogie Nights without deep social commentary, in-depth characterization, and purpose. Meanwhile, 54 maintains everything that Boogie Night was considered taboo for: the sex, the drugs, and the excesses of the lifestyles of the characters. What it basically results in is a shell of a movie, a lot of exterior glam, and no substance.
Boogie Nights endeared you to the lead character, Dirk Diggler, immediately, and 54 tries to do the same with Shane O'Shea (Ryan Philippe), but it just doesn't work. Maybe it's because director and writer Mark Christopher spells out Shane's life exactly the same as Dirk's life, but doesn't provide the strong supporting cast that Boogie Nights had. There's the couple that Shane lives and works with, Greg and Anita (played by Breckin Meyer and Salma Hayek), and Steve Rubell (Mike Meyers), Studio 54's flamboyant owner, and the 72 year old disco queen Dottie (Ellen Albertini Dow) who acts as the inevitable sacrifice which snaps Shane out of his mythical world of sex and drugs without consequence, but that's about it.
The father figure that Burt Reynolds played in Boogie Nights binded the supporting cast and main cast together in that film, but Meyer's Rubell is an overindulgent but underdeveloped (and incredibly acted) authority figure. The movie is told in narrative by Phillippe, something that I've always and still do consider a hinderance in watching a film. Having Shane O'Shea narrate tells the viewer that it's his film, which means that you're automatically restricted to that character's life and experiences only, so development of supporting cast is strictly limited immediately. There are attempts to expand the characters of Rubell, Greg and Anita, but they don't seem to pan out since the focus is never on them. The only supporting cast member you ever get anything out of is Disco Dottie in a scene wher Shane runs into her and her grandchildren while visiting the pharmacist.
Neve Campbell's character Julie, a struggling soap-opera actress serves only one purpose to the story (the lure for Shane to go to Studio 54) and that should have been the end of her character. A completely useless storyline having Shane and Julie meet and establish a relationship should never have been.
A movie full of great actors and tremendous promise, 54 disappoints more than it should.