65 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
65 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
written by john grisham and robert altman ( as al hayes )
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directed by robert altman
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some time ago , a young director was given the opportunity to direct the screen version of a popular novel .
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the novel was a summer smash , topping best-seller lists across the country and already drawing speculation as to which popular actors of the day might play the leads .
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the only problem : the novel wasn't very good .
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it was far more pulp than pulitzer .
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but the director realized that , no matter how pedestrian the prose , this book really grabbed people - that the author , while not a great writer , was a fantastic storyteller .
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so he took on the project , convinced he could make something happen on screen .
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the director ?
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francis ford coppola .
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the book , of course , was mario puzo's the godfather .
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the rest , as they say in showbiz , was history .
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by bringing up the godfather , i don't mean to suggest that robert altman's the gingerbread man is destined for that level of greatness .
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but the parallel does suggest that it is possible to create great cinema from questionable source material .
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can you get any more questionable than john grisham ?
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depends on whom you ask .
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but there's no question that grisham's work grabs people .
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like puzo , grisham is a better storyteller than a writer - unlike fellow hack michael crichton , who is a good idea man but who can't tell a well-constructed story from a can of spam .
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so something in grisham's unpublished story of a cocky savannah lawyer who gets involved in a deadly family squabble drew the attention of robert altman , who at 73 years old remains one of america's greatest living filmmakers .
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the result is a gripping thriller that , while falling short of classic cinema , deserves its place in the altman canon .
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>from its opening shot to the closing credits , the gingerbread man is permeated with a sense of dread , with a fear of the natural destructive forces of the universe .
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this terrific sense of mood is a classic altman touch .
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witness said opening shot : we see an aerial view of coastal georgia with its writhing , undulating landscape while the soundtrack grumbles ominously in our ear .
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we roll over the hills into the town of savannah , then zoom in close on a red sports car speeding over a bridge while its driver chatters oblivious on his cell phone .
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right away we know that the driver of that car is in for a few surprises .
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pay attention , boys and girls - this shot was not conceived by john grisham , but by altman .
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this is what a great director can do for questionable source material .
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the sports car belongs to rick magruder ( kenneth branagh ) , the aforementioned hotshot attorney who specializes in police brutality cases .
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magruder has just won a high profile case and celebrates that night with a catered party at his office .
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outside after the party he meets one of the waitresses , mallory doss ( embeth davidzt ) , just as she realizes her car has been stolen .
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driven by southern chivalry , a driving rainstorm and his unspoken attraction to the fragile waitress , magruder offers her a ride home .
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there he learns more about mallory's life than he bargained for .
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her car was stolen by her schizophrenic father dixon ( robert duvall ) , a ted kyzynski-style whacko who has been stalking and terrorizing his own daughter .
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magruder , perhaps influenced by mallory's decision to strip off her wet clothes in front of him , is sympathetic to her plight , and offers to help her get her father committed - right after he sleeps with her , of course .
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this simple offer of help leads magruder down a dangerous path with a black end .
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he succeeds in having dixon incarcerated in a mental hospital , and for a moment all appears well .
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but then dixon's crack team of homeless commandos bust him out of the lockup - and suddenly magruder finds himself , mallory and his own children in danger .
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the cops won't lift a finger to help a liberal attorney .
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his only allies are his faithful assistant lois ( daryl hannah ) and his bumbling private-eye sidekick clyde ( robert downey jr ) .
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if this predicament wasn't bad enough , hurricane geraldo is bearing down on savannah and throwing the world into chaos .
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altman may provide the atmosphere , but branagh's performance holds the gingerbread man together .
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an accomplished actor when he isn't directing himself in vanity productions , branagh does a fine job of making rick a sympathetic hero while casting doubt upon his motives .
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is his offer of help to mallory an act of kindness , or of egotism ?
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magruder is so sure of his place in the world that he never considers that he has bitten off more than he can chew until he has to swallow it - and by then it's too late .
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as the plot unfolds , magruder learns that none of us are as secure as we think we are .
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and life is never so bad that it can't get worse .
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if you're familiar with altman's work , you'll recognize several of his signature techniques .
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characters are not introduced in establishing shots , but rather are allowed to wander in the background of scenes until their importance becomes apparent .
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crucial scenes are shot from the outside through windows , making the audience unwitting voyeurs of the action .
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dialog overlaps and the actors seem to slip naturally into an improvisational style .
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and of course there's my favorite altman technique - the obligatory nude actress shot .
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thanks to altman , here are some of the actresses i've had the pleasure of seeing naked : sally kellerman , julianne moore , madeline stowe , even frances mcdormand .
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and now i can add embeth davidtz , who looks quite healthy in the altogether .
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the naked actress shot has become as ubiquitous to the altman film as the director cameo was to the hitchcock film .
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is it old-school sexism , or a clever in-joke ?
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you be the judge .
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but back to the picture at hand .
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in the hands of a mere mortal , the gingerbread man would have been a routine thriller , no better or worse than the countless others we've all endured .
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in the hands of a master like altman , it becomes an exercise in existential doom , in its own way far more successful than scorsese's cape fear remake , which tried for the same result .
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what may prevent it from enduring with altman's greatest work is a weak third act - in fact , there really is no third act in grisham's story , so it appears that altman had to throw in the hurricane just to jazz things up .
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but there are true moments of riveting suspense , and great performances by branagh , davidzt and downey jr - more than enough to see you through .
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that polygram so hated this picture that they tried to steal final cut from altman , and then buried the marketing campaign when he won it back , should tell you how utterly clueless of quality most studios are .
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they probably wanted it to look more like a time to kill .
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and that , my friends , should make you very afraid .
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