PALMETTO
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING: ** OUT OF ****
United States/Germany, 1998 U.S. Release Date: 2/20/98 (limited) Running Length: 1:50 MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity, sex) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Gina Gershon, Elisabeth Shue, Chloe Sevigny, Tom Wright, Michael Rapaport, Rolfe Hoppe Director: Volker Schlondorff Producers: Matthias Wendlandt, Al Corley Screenplay: E. Max Frye based on JUST ANOTHER SUCKER by James Hadley Chase Cinematography: Thomas Kloss U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
From time-to-time, as I'm sitting in a theater watching a movie, I experience a profound sense of deja vu. In the case of something like PALMETTO, which isn't a sequel or a remake, and is based on a novel I know I haven't read, it can be a disturbing feeling. Upon reflection, however, the reason is obvious: there's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture. Everything -- characters, situations, settings -- is culled from other sources. This is the kind of movie I've seen on a cable movie channel late at night, although it usually shows a lot more skin and features names like Andrew Stevens and Shannon Tweed rather than Woody Harrelson and Elisabeth Shue.
The intent of director Volker Schlondorff (THE HANDMAID'S TALE) is to create the newest entry to the burgeoning genre of '90s film noir. However, despite an impressive cast and a talented cinematographer who knows how to play with light and shadow, he's stuck with a B-movie script. Instead of making PALMETTO tongue-in-cheek, which is the tone it cries out for, he plays everything straight. The result is a stale and tedious mystery that surprises viewers with some of its twists only because they're so contrived that they make little sense.
Harry Barber (Harrelson) is a hard-luck case. After falling victim to a well-orchestrated frame-up and spending the last two years in prison for something he didn't do, he is suddenly sprung when the testimony of an ex-cop reveals the truth. Even as he reunites with his loving, supportive girlfriend, Nina (Gina Gershon), Harry continues to harbor bitterness against the officials of the town of Palmetto, Florida. Then, seemingly out of the blue, he meets the rich and sexy Rhea Malroux (Elisabeth Shue) at a local bar. After sizing Harry up over a drink, she offers him a job. "The money's good but, in exchange, there's an element of risk," she informs him. After contemplating the dried-up employment market, Harry agrees to consider her offer. The work sounds simple. Rhea and her step-daughter, Odette (Chloe Sevigny), are planning to con Rhea's rich, dying husband out of $500,000 by staging Odette's (fake) kidnapping. The money would then be split 50/50 between the two women, with Harry getting $50,000. It sounds like a reasonably straightforward scheme, but, in movies like this, nothing ever goes as planned.
The acting is one of the reasons PALMETTO doesn't work. Woody Harrelson, Gina Gershon, and Michael Rapaport (as Rhea's bodyguard) give grim, humorless performances. They put on their serious faces and treat the script like it's Dostoevsky. Elisabeth Shue, on the other hand, goes 180 degrees in the opposite direction, vamping it up and generally acting silly. The only one to turn in a good job is Chloe Sevigny (KIDS, TREES LOUNGE), who manages the perfect mix of ripe sexuality and innocence. In fact, Sevigny's Odette is the lone character who's even a little interesting, and her screen time is sadly restricted. Meanwhile, as the straight-shooting Assistant D.A., actor Tom Wright stands around for most of the picture looking constipated.
It's hard to feel much sympathy for Harry Barber. First of all, he insists on bothering us with a useless voice-over narrative. Secondly, the guy is as dumb as a wooden post. When it comes to doing things that are blatantly stupid, he's like teenagers who go skinny-dipping in horror movies. He's courting disaster, and, of course, it's more than happy to welcome him in. For a plot like this one to work, audiences not only have to buy into Harry's lack of intelligence, but must become party to it. In that way, the screenplay is insulting. There are a lot of twists and turns in PALMETTO, but most are so hard-to-swallow that they don't have any impact. And, when the truth finally emerges, it isn't likely to cause more than a momentary shrug. Ultimately, that shrug is about all this movie deserves. If you really have a burning desire to see it, wait for its appearance on Cinemax some night at 2 AM, between ILLICIT DREAMS and BODY CHEMISTRY IV.
Copyright 1998 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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