After a long period of critical and popular
hiatus, Robert Altman hit the jackpot with ThePlayer, and that, along with the following movie, viz. Short Cuts, begun the final, and second-most fruitful phase of his
illustrious career. Employing the similar complex and sprawling structure he
made fascinating use of in Nashville,
he adapted a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver for this trenchant, textured
and incisive examination of the intersecting lives of 22 Los Angeles
inhabitants over the course of a few days. Altman made excellent use of a
non-intrusive, minimalist style and meditative tone (again, reminiscent of his
1975 masterpiece) to portray its motley characters – a wealthy TV anchor (Bruce
Davison), with whose drone-like voice the film begins), his mild-mannered wife (Andie
MacDowell), young son, and guilt-ridden estranged father (Jack Lemmon); a rich
doctor (Matthew Modine) and his liberated painter wife (Julianne Moore); a
beautiful housewife (Madeleine Stowe) and her philandering policeman husband
(Tim Robbins); a promiscuous divorced mother (Frances McDormand) and her jealous
ex-husband (Peter Gallagear); a depressive waitress (Lily Tomlin) and her alcoholic
husband (Tom Waits); a lonely middle-aged jazz singer (Annie Ross) and her
cellist, self-destructive daughter (Lori Singer); a smooth-talking make-up
artist (Robert Downey Jr.) and his besotted wife (Lili Taylor); a docile man
(Chris Penn) and her vivacious wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who earns a few
extra bucks through phone sex; a self-employed man who loves fishing (Fred
Ward) and his fragile wife (Anne Archer) who works as a clown; et al.
Brilliantly acted and comprising of a terrific soundtrack, this rich tapestry of
diverse and myriad interconnected lives, was a disturbing, cynical
and darkly funny critique of such themes as family, love, guilt, infidelity, loneliness,
broken dreams, and loss.
Director: Robert Altman
Genre: Drama/Urban Drama/Family Drama/Existential Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: English
Country: US
2 comments:
There are several fascinating vignettes, the performances are uniformly excellent, and the realistic approach intensifies teh drama. As I recall some stories are better than others, but all in all it's still another significant achievement for Altman.
Yeah, I completely agree that some of the vignettes were superior than the others. The one involving the Jazz singer & her suicidal daughter - that would rank as my favourite, followed by the Tim Robbins-Madeiline Stowe one. And Jack Lemmon's monologue too would be right up there. Altman did a really terrific job in smoothly binding such diverse stories & characters into a seamless whole.
Thanks Sam for stopping by.
Post a Comment