THE GINGERBREAD MAN (1998) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Robert Altman Writer: Al Hayes (based on a story by John Grisham) Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Roberty Downey Jr, Daryl Hannah, Robert Duvall, Famke Janssen, Tom Berenger, Jesse James, Mae Whitman
"The Gingerbread Man" is a film that almost cries out to be made into a piece of Hollywood fluff, and it would have been if it hadn't been directed by someone like Robert Altman. It's not surprising that this film is based on a story by John Grisham, one of the current kings (or at least he's a duke) of bestsellers, since it has to deal with his favorite topic - lawyers being forced to go above and beyond their duties - and because it soon descends into a kafkaesque nightmare where the protagonist's life is turned inside out.
Yet it's effortlessly not like the other Grisham films, like "The Firm" and "The Client." There's more atmosphere, more plausible twists, less contrivance (in comparison, that is), and one other quality the other lacked: surprise. As a hurricane (nicely titled "Geraldo") sweeps through the film's location of Savannah, Georgia, the film tells a nice piece of pulp where the twists are geniuine, and so is the atmosphere and the characters. And yet the pulp is another of the Grisham lawyer stories, following a formula that has been perfected yet doesn't feel like it's being followed all the time.
The story deals with, well, a southern lawyer named Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh, with a flawless and not-at-all annoying Southern accent), who arrives home from a case one night and finds his staff and friends have thrown a party for him. After chatting it up with his assistant (Daryl Hannah, who's not at all bad in this) and a couple of his other staffers, he leaves and runs into a waitress who was there, Mallory (Embeth Davidtz), who's car is stolen and who ends up with a ride home from Rick. Rick discovers that Mallory suspects her father (Robert Duvall), a crazy old man who has been stalking her of late, stole it, and when back at her house, the two become close as she tells him of her problems and he tries unsuccessfully to help. The two end the conversation by sleeping together.
>From here on, Rick begins to feel a certain need to help her, and he manages to get her father to court, where they win effortlessly, and he is sent to a mental institution. But he is broken out by a cult he belongs to, and soon Rick's life is being turned upside down. He gets threats in the mail, finds out cars are following him, and soon begins to take the law into his own hand. For once in a real long time, Altman manages to make everything very suspenseful, with some real geniune nail biters here, even though the final chapter of the film is basically one big predictable contrivance, bringing it to a cliched albeit less glossy ending that it could have avoided.
It's not the plot I really liked about this film. Most Grisham plots are in all reality just throwaways. His novels are entertaining, but let's face it: they're forgettable. You read it while on vacation or on breaks from work, and when you're done, you read his next book and the cycle just continues. What Altman has done differently, something which the other directors didn't do, is give it a personal touch. Altman's a very original director. He goes for a less glossy approach to all his films, using lots of sloppy and improvised close-ups, following many voice tracks at one time, and just allowing the film to lay still as he allows characters to just hang out. Look at how he designs Rick's office staff and you'll see how loose and free this film really is, even if its confined by a plot.
As for the element of surprise it introduces - what I mean is that it allows us to feel a lot like the characters, and it never really lets us onto thinking of possible conspiracies. We go along with everything. We're there with Rick in his rage towards the second half of the film, when his kids are kidnapped by someone and we all know who did it. It doesn't hurt that Kenneth Branagh is such a likable actor that he manages to make Rick, who could be just a lawyer who may just be on the receiving end of instant karma, into a sympathetic and lovable guy.
I can't say I totally liked this film. It's still a contrived film, with an ending that Altman fought with the studio over and you wonder why he didn't just look for a better one. And Altman's free direction, which allows mood and characters to be more prominent than plot doesn't exactly work perfectly well with a film where the plot is so important. And this film is disappointing in one major way: just the fact that this was directed by someone as amazing as Altman. This certainly can't be a step forward for the same man who less than a decade ago made a brilliant little film called "The Player."
But I'm still one of the few people who try to look at every film by a director as a singular piece of art, and not judge him from his others. This man has made "M*A*S*H" and "Nashville." So what? Directors sometimes need to take breaks but still direct, and making films like this, that are never meant to be masterpieces is sometimes refreshing. I remember when Martin Scorsese made "Cape Fear" and some critics criticized it for not being as great as, say, "Raging Bull." I suppose the difference between this film and that one is that "Cape Fear" WAS a great film, and "The Gingerbread Man" is merely just good.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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