BULWORTH (20th Century Fox) Starring: Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle. Screenplay: Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser. Producers: Warren Beatty and Pieter Brugge. Director: Warren Beatty. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, drug use, some violence, adult themes) Running Time: 107 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Here's a comic premise with all the potential in the world: a man in a career where lying is part of the job description becomes disgusted with his own life. He has a breakdown, and as part of that breakdown he starts telling the truth, the outrageous and unexpurgated truth, consequences be damned. Naturally, the public responds to this unusual display of candor, and the teller of the truth becomes a sort of folk hero, much to the consternation of corporate America.
That's the basic premise of a 1990 comedy called CRAZY PEOPLE, in which Dudley Moore plays an advertising executive who snaps his cap and starts turning out product slogans like "Volvo -- They're boxy, but they're good." It's also the premise of BULWORTH, in which Warren Beatty plays a Democratic Senator from California named Jay Billington Bulworth who snaps his cap during a re-election campaign and starts making colorful statements about his constituents in the African-American and film-making communities, among others. With three days left before the California primary, a CNBC news crew following his every move and his Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt) watching in helpless horror, Bulworth decides to go out in a blaze of honesty after taking out a contract on his own life.
CRAZY PEOPLE was less than completely successful because it didn't have a shred of story to offer once you got past the admittedly hilarious snippets of truth in advertising. BULWORTH is less than completely successful because it has _too much_ story, none of it in keeping with the frivolous, politically incorrect tone of its trailers. It turns out that Jay Bulworth is a crushed idealist, a one-time activist turned mainstream party drone. Beatty crafts a solid opening as we see Bulworth reduced to tears while watching a videotaped compendium of his television spots bashing affirmative action, preaching family falues and mouthing platitudes about "standing on the doorstep of a new millennium." Though he launches his uncensored commentary from a suicidal indifference to the future, he finds himself re-energized by speaking from his true principles, eventually trying to end the contract on his life so he can continue delivering his message.
It's a dark and provocative tale, one which could easily turn off viewers who come in expecting something completely different. Beatty uses BULWORTH as a soapbox for old-school Democratic ideology, criticizing the influence of big business and promoting single-payer health care. Though he deftly inserts most of his social commentary into rap-style lyrics -- somehow a rapped lecture sounds less like a lecture -- it's still an aggressive attack on the Powers That Be as Beatty sees them. Add to this a tentative romance between Bulworth and a young black woman (Halle Berry), the intrusion of the hit-man sub-plot and even a bit of fish-out-of-water comedy as Bulworth hides out in the 'hood, and you end up with a film that's more jittery than edgy. BULWORTH keeps lashing out in search of its tone -- one moment goofy and irreverent, the next moment grim and pedantic.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a comedy delivering its goods unconventionally, provided the goods are delivered. There are plenty of comic high points in BULWORTH, including Platt's superb performance as Bulworth's ever-more-frantic right hand man and the shoot-from-the-hip speeches already showcased in previews. But there's also a sense that Beatty wants to lure people in with comedy so he can hit them over the head with his politics. Even if you agree with those politics, you may find BULWORTH leaving a strange and unpleasant aftertaste; you'll know you've seen an interesting film, but you may feel cheated by the kind of film you got. I suspect viewers will wish they'd seen more of Bulworth's comic rantings. Perhaps this ad campaign could have used a dose of CRAZY PEOPLE's truth in advertising.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 mack senators: 6.
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