Review: Clay Pigeons
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo
Directed by David Dobkin
Clay Pigeons is trendy not only in its casting of three budding stars, but in it's flashy-to-a-fault construction. Dobkin interjects small bits of MTV flair into what is otherwise a traditionally told story.
The film starts off rather originally. Phoenix plays Clay, an auto mechanic who has an affair with his friend's wife. Clay's friend kills himself and Clay disposes of the body. After another unfortunate situation arises later in the film, Clay once again makes the corpse disappear. Lester (Vaughn) pops up as a new fishing buddy, and they encounter another corpse. The mystery (as well as some of the screenplay's wit) drives the film for a good 40 minutes. But once the FBI shows up, Clay Pigeons becomes extremely formulaic. The wrong man accused, the dumb cop, the good guy, bad guy showdown; all is done as a matter of routine, Screenwriting 101.
Perhaps one of the major faults lies with Lester. Vaughn (prepping for his upcoming role as a psyschotic in the Psycho remake) overacts throughout. Though he is frequently amusing, he is nothing more than a bad guy. Screenwriters these days seem to know that bad guys are needed, but they seldom have depth. There is nothing behind Lester, nothing to let us know why he is who he is. Garofalo is also a bit unbelieveable as an FBI agent. She isn't as compelling as Foster's agent in Silence of the Lambs, nor as funny as McDormand's cop in Fargo. But she can't be completely faulted either, for the character she has to work with is not very robust.
Clay Pigeons is undoubtedly a dark comedy with some extermely macabre elements. The film is paced very well, and one scene in particular is as tense as any in a top-notch suspense film. But some flat performances and a unique script turned ordinary make this an average production. One interesting note, famed director Ridley Scott produced it, and his director brother Tony executive produced it. Keep an eye out for some self-serving references.
* * out of * * * * stars © 1998 Nick Amado
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