rooprect Don't let the presence of Bill Pullman (Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, Singles) fool you; this is no breezy romcom. Not by a mile.Based on a famous opera (in case you don't already know which one, I won't tell you because that might ruin the story), it's a pretty clever modernization. It begins innocently enough like a good dark comedy, but almost immediately you start to pick up cues that the director is trying to unsettle us. Scenes of New York City are shot from low, wide angles creating a claustrophobic effect. Most of the story seems to happen at night in shady places or in the dark, ominous halls of the sleazebag corporation where Rick works. All of this offsets the comedy which is rife in the first half.But if you're expecting a comic morality tale like "Scrooged" or "Groundhog Day" or even "A Christmas Carol", you'll be in for a few surprises. First of all, the choice of leading actor Bill Pullman is a puzzler. We're supposed to hate him, right? How can we possibly hate the eternal good guy "Walter from Sleepless in Seattle"? The answer is we can't. And I believe this casting choice was intentional. In the DVD extras the filmmakers say it's much more complicated than bad-guy-takes-his-lumps. Instead they create a complex protagonist who is evil but not without just cause. This complicates matters as we become sympathetic toward him. The experience can be very emotionally draining, but that's why I think this is a good film.An outstanding performance from Agnes Bruckner as the daughter, as well as great supporting roles from everyone involved, keep things moving at a somewhat fast pace. You barely have time to notice the great architecture and powerful sets featured in the film, not to mention all the literary allusions and little winks at the audience (for example, notice how the phone number on Buck's business card keeps changing).As far as creative retellings of classic stories go, "Rick" is a winner. Other good ones include "The Claim" (a wild west adaptation of the Byron poem "Ozymandias"), "Dolan's Cadillac" (based on Stephen King's rewrite of Poe's "Cask of Amontillado") and--a bit of a stretch but--"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", a kick-butt retelling of Moby Dick.

lavatch "Rick" is an example of a decent indie film that never realized its potential.The premise of the film was great, especially the early sequence in which the greedy, callous, executive Rick O'Lette (Bill Pullman) is unbearably rude to a young woman named Michelle interviewing for a job (Sandra Oh). In the film's best scene, Michelle lays a "curse" on him, which he instantly recognizes will come to pass.Unfortunately, the rest of film was predictable and one-dimensional. Apart from Pullman, Oh, and Agnes Bruckner (who plays O'Lette's daughter), the acting wasn't very good. Also, there was overkill on the scoring that called major attention to the music, as opposed to utilizing the sound to support the dramatic moments.It was unfortunate that Sandra Oh's character Michelle was not developed throughout the movie. We needed to learn more about her background and the "curse" that was her design on the evil Rick O'Lette.For a good film dealing with the theme of corporate greed and the personal toll it can take on a family, "In Good Company" succeeds in every area where "Rick" ultimately fails.

Robert J. Maxwell What an odd film. The first ten minutes or so establish the ethos concisely. An Oriental woman enters Bill Pulman's office for a job interview. He asks, "Didn't Laura tell you I was busy and ask you to wait outside? Either she did or she didn't. If she didn't, I call down and fire Laura. If she did, you close the door and wait outside until I'm finished. Which is it?" When he's finished with his business (which is twitting his boss over the results of a football game) he asks the woman in and scans her resume. "So, Monica, you'd like to work here." "Michelle," she corrects him. "Hmm. So you're Chinese." "My grandparents were from Japan," she says. Pullman then draws out his denial of her application, relishing every moment of her humiliation, telling her, "I won't hire anyone who sits there and corrects me all the time just because I didn't memorize every goddam item on her resume." There is another terrific scene in those first few minutes, when Pullman visits the office of his Big Boss, Duke. (Everybody seems to be named Duke or Rick or Buck or Nick.) Pullman teases Duke about having lost the bet on the game and the two of them start playing grabass in this masculine way that high school kids do, ragging one another and calling names and jabbing each other in the ribs, chuckling all the while. However, after 30 or 40 seconds of this rough house we realize that the razzing is becoming more one sided. Duke -- Pullman's superior -- is now shouting all the insults while Pullman is groaning with mock pain. "I'm gonna kill your family and you, then I'm gonna take a red hot poker and shove it up your a** and cut off your b**** and set 'em on fire." Pullman (doing a splendid job) shields himself with his hands, says, "No, no -- not THAT!", and crawls under the desk while Duke follows him, still shouting threats.It's an extremely funny scene but there's an element of sadism in it too, a kind of Schadenfreude, since the main reason it's funny is that it's happening to someone else. It's the same reason we might laugh at some poor guy who realizes in a public place that his fly is open and quickly zips up. We wouldn't want to trade places with him. It's all the more humiliating for Pullman because his boss looks about 10 or 20 years younger than he is. Man, is that a degrading position to be in. I once applied for a job at a pizza place and was interviewed by a kid less than half my age. "Ever had any delivery experience -- sir?", he inquired.The movie follows a not uncommon trajectory, from whimsically amusing through seriousness to tragedy. I kind of wish it had stayed funny, because the tragic part doesn't really tell us much. We don't emerge from the experience epiphanied or anything. Basically, Pullman hates his boss so much, particularly after finding that his boss has been diddling Pullman's daughter, that he hires somebody to kill Duke. There is a mistake in identity and the wrong person is killed. Hello? The performances are all good, especially Pullman. I'm coming to respect him as an actor more and more because he can accomplish so much while seeming to do so little. (Listen to his phony groans through clenched teeth when Duke is tormenting him during that first scene. A perfect blend of pretending and feeling.) The dialog scintillates when it sticks to arrogance and humiliation. In the second half it turns rather pedestrian, but still -- that first half is very nicely done.The direction is efficient without being flamboyant. The score is unique. Without really paying much attention, I was able to identify only four instruments -- base, drums, guitar, and accordion. Not a quartet though. They don't play at the same time, and rarely in any combination at all. One rather lengthy scene is scored using only up-tempo solo drums. The only tunes I could discern were Christmas songs or variations on them.The movie has its weaknesses but it's an original effort. It imitates nothing that's gone before. The people involved should get a pat on the back, even if some viewers might find it a little simple in its message. If you are too greedy for material things, you will regret it later. I think the Greeks may have called this sin "pleonaxis." In this case the punishment seems to have been brought on by the Jade Emporer through a Chinese curse.

anhedonia If you go to the movies to feel good about life, to feel all warm and fuzzy about the world around you, then "Rick" isn't for you. However, if you delight in stories that revel in the darker side of human nature, that have a nasty sense of humor, then this incredibly dark comedy might be just the film for you.Based on Verdi's opera, "Rigoletto," editor-turned-director Curtiss Clayton brings to life a script by Daniel Handler, better known to audiences as the "Lemony Snicket" author. In "Rick," Bill Pullman plays the title character, a man who works at a company called Image, though we're never told what exactly he or the company do. His boss Duke, almost half Rick's age, engages in machismo talk and has a penchant for online chats on a porn I'm service.To reveal more would be to destroy much of the fun of this very wicked film."Rick" actually goes way beyond dark comedy. Pullman gains tremendous glee from playing someone loathsome. Come to think of it, with the exception of Rick's teen-age daughter Eve (played by the marvelously talented young actress Agnes Bruckner), there really aren't any likable people in this movie. And Eve, who's the only one who sees the good in her dad, isn't exactly squeaky clean. She gets her kicks by "talking" dirty on the Internet. Bruckner, whose depiction of an emotionally scarred high school student in "Blue Car" was one of last year's highlights, finds just the right mix of confidence and innocence to make Eve believable.Often, it is hard to be absorbed by a film where none of the characters seems to have any redeeming virtues. But, strangely, "Rick" manages to hook us. Mostly because we're initially intrigued by who these people are and why they behave so despicably. Watching Rick berate a woman interviewing for a job is uncomfortable. Yet, there's something hypnotic about the whole sequence.This is extremely broad social satire veering into the absurd. This film is filed with several odd moments. The interview aside, there's the initial macho gamesmanship between Rick and Duke (played by Aaron Stanford as a slimy creature, quite a departure from playing 15-year-old Oscar Grubman in "Tadpole"). Then there's Buck (Dylan Baker), who meets Rick in a bar where people spy on other patrons. Buck tells Rick he runs his own company. There's a funny joke about that when Rick sees Buck's business card."Rick" is by no means a perfect dark comedy. But it definitely has a strange way of keeping you interested in its characters. They may not be likable but, damn it, they're most certainly intriguing and captivating. If you're in the mood for something out of the ordinary and you relish films that dabble in morally decrepit people, give "Rick" a peek. I've seen better films this year, but this one will stick in my mind for a long time.