rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1992
Directed by Robert Altman; produced by David Brown, Michael Tolkin, Nick Wechsler; screenplay by Michael Tolkin
Starring Tim Robbins, Whoopi Goldberg, Lyle Lovett, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Peter Gallagher, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sydney Pollack
The better, more complete, review will be online very soon.
'The Player' works on a lot of levels. It works as a comedy and a thriller
or a detective, but it is also perfect satire and makes fun of itself from
time to time. It celebrates the movies as much as it attacks the Hollywood
system and doing both in one film is quite an achievement. The director is
Robert Altman so it is not really a surprise he can pull it off.
The film starts with honoring the long opening take of 'Touch of Evil' with
doing the same thing. From here on we follow Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), a
writers executive. At the studio he decides whether a script will be turned
into a film or not. He receives threatening postcards, probably from a
writer who's script he rejected. One night he visits the writer (Vincent
D'Onofrio) he thinks threatens him and after some arguments he accidentally
kills him. Two detectives (Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett) are on the case
and although they have no prove Griffin has something to do with it, they do
know something is not as it seems.
This is one of the stories but it would not be Altman if there was only one
story. Griffin has some trouble at work as well. A new guy named Larry Levy
(Peter Gallagher) might be after his job. To make things even more
complicated Griffin starts dating the dead writer's girlfriend June (Greta
Scacchi) although he has a girlfriend also working at the studio named
Bonnie (Cynthia Stevenson). Between all these events we see Griffin working,
mainly talking to people who have strange ideas for films. We laugh with
every new stupid story and then we realize we have seen a film like that.
If you like to watch movies and have seen quite some there is no chance you
will not like this. But for people who just want to see a nice film 'The
Player' works almost as good. A lot of the fun comes from spotting the
cameos and believe me, there are many. The story itself shows once again how
good Altman is with multiple story lines and a lot of characters. We are
easily able to keep track and remember who is who. 'The Player' is a
well-made film, well-acted as well, with a Thomas Newman score that
perfectly fits the action. Easy to enjoy for everybody and even great if you
have seen quite some other films.