Desertman84
The Gingerbread Man was based on an original story by John Grisham that was subsequently adapted into screenplay form. The film stars Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Famke Janssen, and Robert Duvall.The screenplay was written by Al Hayes and directed by Robert Altman. This tale that begins at a party where Savannah attorney Rick Magruder celebrates his successful defense of a man who shot a local cop. The party-goers include his ex-wife Leeanne, the mother of his two children; his law partner Lois Harlan; and caterer Mallory Doss. After Mallory finds her car stolen, Rick gives her a ride home where things turn sexual. Attracted to Mallory, he learns that her crazed father Dixon Doss has been threatening her. Getting too closely involved with this woman he hardly knows, Rick has the police round up her unstable father, and he next subpoenas her ex-husband Pete to testify against Dixon, who is institutionalized. The crazed Dixon manages to escape from the asylum, intent on revenge against all his betrayers and enemies. As a potent hurricane blows into Savannah, Mallory's car is torched, and Rick receives threats. Believing his children are in danger, Rick removes them from school, prompting a warrant for his arrest. When his children disappear, Rich goes on the counterattack against Dixon.The movie is a decent story but Robert Altman and his great cast make the most of the material and deliver a solid movie.They took what could have been a generic and ordinary movie by investing artistry and effort, he made it into something more despite of it being uneven and predictable.As for the performances,Kenneth Branagh that holds this film together and does it well.
kpw-5
How a director of Altman's experience could ever expect us to want to spend time with, or to care about what happens to, a lead character who is neurotic, a whiner, a jerk with no redeeming qualities -- that is the central puzzle about this profoundly confused piece of work. A monstrous piece of trash. In addition to this crippling flaw, the plot line requires serious concentration to follow. The setup that the Branagh character walks into is so obviously a setup from the start that we are inclined to wonder whether the writer and director have totally lost respect for their audience. This latter issue is at the core of the film: it represents directorial self-indulgence with profound contempt for the taste, values, and intelligence of the viewer. Very unusual for Mr. Altman.Patrick Watson
Cristi_Ciopron
Kenneth Branagh plays a rascal, a hypocritical scoundrel,a villain,a bad lot &low fellow.Embeth Davidtz's character is a bit of fluff.Often moderately and conventionally atmospheric, the film has also a moralist intention and aim,a moralist, moralizing, ironic, quizzer, chaffer, biting, sarcastic side, with accents of satire--all of these, alternatively, also with fluid transitions.Yet the characters are mere puppets, which is bad in a moralist work--i.e.,a work that sets itself up for a moral study, for a study of manners.This ample defect undermines the entire film, it is a major flaw.The movie is, therefore, never complete or entire--and still for another reason or lack as well--it lacks the dramatic dimension, the labyrinthine itinerary, and it sadly reminds things like Mike Figgis' Cold Creek Manor (2003) or as cheap as Phil Joanou's Final Analysis (1992).A straight thriller like Peter Hyams' Narrow Margin (1990)(--with Gene Hackman,the delicious humid Anne Archer,M. Emmet Walsh,etc.) was ten times better and much more chilling.The story is trite, and the handling is hackneyed and tarnished. Which results in the movie being cheap, phony, schmaltz, a trite surrogate.(Hammer time:once B. Barbera spoke about the fake things, the fake legends in music--like U2 and Doors; the same might be said, for the cinema ,about directors like Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah.Or, to complete here, and quote myself a bit from an earlier review—also phony prestige directors like Lynch, Burton, the Coens, Soderbergh, maybe Shyamalan, Scorsese, the very phony idols of a fastidious emptiness.But maybe I will recant these stances someday.)Now to positive elements (that The Gingerbread Man (1998) completely lacks):a mystery thriller ought to be a maze, labyrinthine, sinuous, circuitous, like The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Touch of Evil (1958) ; like Don Siegel's adaptation of Israel Zangwill's novel "The Big Bow Mystery"--fortunately never adapted again since '46!;and like "Vertigo";like Jean Delannoy's Maigret movies,like Dario Argento's '70s movies,like David Wickes' Jack the Ripper (1988),or like François Truffaut's Mississippi Mermaid .
