PLAYING GOD (R)
Directed by Andy Wilson Running Time: 94 minutes Originally Released: October 17, 1997
Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* * ½ (out of four)
I've often wondered how silly actors feel when they narrate a movie. You know, that voice over that explains everything going on right before your eyes - either cluing you in on the things you can't see, catching up on all the preliminary events, or just plain making sure you understand the scene in case the director can't cut it. I just can't imagine standing at a microphone and trying to *sound* like the character just talking, and not like I'm reading or acting. At least with animated movies you can get into the character, but with a simple narration, you're stuck.
Getting back to the actual movie at hand, PLAYING GOD starts off with David Duchovny's voice catching us up on his character Eugene Sands' life. In an extremely laid back Duchovny tone, we come to realize that Eugene is an ex- doctor whose license was taken away when a patient died at his hands during surgery. Doesn't this happen once in a while? Yes, but it just so happens that Eugene was under the influence of narcotics at the time. Ahhh, now you see.
Duchovny rambles on as we watch his character entering an underground club in search of synthetic heroin. It seems that the tragic event hasn't changed Eugene's life for the better. Eugene still isn't satisfied with such natural highs as perfecting a hook shot or bench pressing five more pounds than he did the week before, and his idea of a snack, as an adult, is no longer cookies and milk, but rather heroin and milk. Skip the Hershey's chocolate syrup - get Kurt Cobain on the phone!
As Eugene drinks it up at a bar, we watch two thugs working their way thru the raving, dimly-lit bodies on the dance floor, their hands lingering on the insides of their sportscoats. Do you think they could have guns in there? Oh geez! Well, before you have time to answer that, they pull out their semi- automatics and pump a few rounds into some poor bastard standing right next to Eugene. Unfortunately, because of all the underground dealings going on around this club, nobody will dial 911. In a quick balancing act of morals versus possible judicial consequences, Eugene falls to the ground and plays MacGyver after ten years in medical school. He saves the guy's life using a plastic water bottle to somehow prevent a collapsed lung from being fatal. Three cheers for Dr. MacGyver, and three hallelujahs for Evian!
Time passes, and little happens in the life of Eugene. We listen to his voice over recounting the renewed sensation of saving someone's life. He sounds like a private investigator in some cheesy movie, using flippant metaphors and analogies such as comparing playing doctor again to a prisoner spending one day in the sun, making the prison seem so much more bleak. Kicking back with a dose of heroin, Eugene falls into a deep sleep/trance providing an excellent opportunity for a flashback to the events that *threw* Eugene from grace. We watch as a drugged up Dr. Sands kills an already dying woman, but we soon escape his mind trip to watch as two punks (not the thugs from before), kidnap the unconscious doctor-no.
Eugene is taken to a beach-side property and introduced to Raymond Blossom, a fraud catering criminal played by Timothy Hutton. Raymond ends up befriending Eugene in a very unusual way and Eugene becomes an unofficial mob doc, getting paid ten grand for every body he works on. Yes - every (space) body. But the question of legalities still haunt Eugene, not to mention the quirkiness of the criminals he's almost unwillingly getting so involved with. It seems the one he wants to get involved with most, Raymond's girlfriend Claire (Angelina Jolie), is the only one that seems to hate him.
PLAYING GOD is really more of a light-psychological thriller/action pic that delves into the explication that every little thing you do, whether it seem important or not, could affect your life in major ways. To be perfectly honest, this mumbo-jumbo wasn't at all what I found to be worthwhile about this film. Neither was the great acting . . . of course there wasn't much of that to begin with. What did make this film worthwhile was it's quirky, lighthearted yet philosophical approach to an otherwise run-of-the-mill psychological action flick. Can you say that ten times fast?
There was nothing of high merit in this film, but I was able to sit back and kill brain cells in a dark theater without getting bored, and that's pretty good. It starts off a little slow and with a slight insinuation of a potentially campy film, but it just gets better the longer you watch. Duchovny is kind of fun even if he is drier than Death Valley. Hutton doesn't do too bad, but is more noticeable for looking incredibly like Kevin Kline than for his acting. Jolie is ok for being so underdeveloped, but I didn't complain that I had to look at her.
In the end, PLAYING GOD doesn't deserve a lot, but it's fun. It's main flaw would actually be how many plot holes and unresolved (or even never fully developed) events and characters it has. This one ties up with many loose ends. In other words, I'd rather hold Glad Ziplock Freezer bags above my head than this movie, but I still think it's worth checking out when it hits home video.
December 15, 1997
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