The Winner (1997)
** out of *****
Cast: Rebecca DeMornay, Vincent D'Onofrio, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Michael Madsen, Billy Bob Thornton Written by: Wendy Riss (based on her stage play) Directed by: Alex Cox Running Time: 92 minutes
When I see something has been based on a stage play, that's usually a sign that the movie I'm about to watch will be horribly bad. Stage plays very rarely (if ever) translate well to the film screen. Then I thought that maybe the top-notch cast in The Winner would make the film an exception. I was wrong.
In The Winner, Vincent D'Onofrio plays a seemingly dimwitted gambler who all of a sudden starts to win every time he plays on Sundays. Soon, all sorts of low-lifes are trying to swindle him out of his money. Sound good? Well it sure should have been.
The film had some potential, but it was wrecked by the staging of each and every scene. Each scene feels like a scene in a play and not one in a movie. They feel as though they are all being improvised, something which may fit right into a play, but just is uncomfortable to watch on film. Especially since these are exactly stage actors out there on the screen (don't get me wrong, it's a great cast... but some actors just can't do both stage and screen). And even though it seems that I've written this many many times lately, but Frank Whaley is again woefully miscast, this time as a cheap thug. Is anyone advising him on his choice of roles?
I guess if I was one of those silly critics like Joel Siegel I'd end this review with something retarded like "The Winner is a loser". Wouldn't that be cute? Well, it might be true, but I'm just not going to do it. [R]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email: chuckd21@leading.net
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