CLAY PIGEONS (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: A non-murderer who broke the law avoiding a possible murder charge finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble. The plot is tightly written and reminiscent of Hitchcock's FRENZY. Tightly paced and well acted. Only the very last sequence rings false. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)
- Nice vicious murder mystery with a patsy caught in the middle. - Should appeal to the same audience that liked RED ROCK WEST. - The viewer (almost always) knows what is going on, but the web of events becomes tighter and tighter around the neck of Clay (Joaquin Phoenix). - Great little suspense thriller set in Montana (though filmed in Utah). Having caught Clay fooling around with his wife Amanda (Georgina Cates), one guy commits suicide, framing Clay for murder. Clay decides to cover up the suicide starting a bigger and bigger chain of events linking him with other murders. - Vince Vaughn steals the film as Lester Long. Vaughn is very natural in front of a camera with an easy charm and grace. (P.S. He also was good in RETURN TO PARADISE and is going to play Norman Bates in the new version of PSYCHO.) - Sarcastic FBI agent played by Janeane Garofalo. "A murder scene is not crowd-appropriate." (That sounds a lot like Garofalo's own style of humor and may well have been ad-libbed.) She makes fun of deputy named Barney. - Sound editing has loud noises on soundtrack, made this audience jump. - Final scene does not make sense logically.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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