A Colorful Community Contained within `Cookie's Fortune' by Homer Yen (c) 1999
The fine thing about being in a small town is exactly that. It's small, cozy and familiar. We accept the charms and the peculiarities of the citizens because that's what gives these kinds of small communities a wonderful life of its own. Take Holly Springs, Mississippi, for example. It's the kind of town where a murder suspect gets one phone call, coffee, a copy of Field & Stream, and a friendly game of Scrabble with the local officer and lawyer. Also, everyone within the community seems to be in the local church play. There are just so many likable people, and director Robert Altman lets us easily slip a peek into the many lives of this town.
Most noteworthy is that of Willis (Charles S. Dutton). He's a simple, aging black man who wouldn't hurt a soul. Sometimes he fishes and other times he sneaks more than a few sips of whiskey. But his true devotion is to friend Cookie (a sweet-as-can-be Patricia Neal). He helps her with her errands and likes nothing better than to fix her catfish fajitas. But Cookie is aging rapidly, and painfully misses her dear, departed husband. Unable to bear her loneliness, she decides to kill herself.
Camille (Glenn Close), Cookie's niece, first discovers the body. She is first shocked, but then outraged by her apparent suicide (`only crazy people would commit suicide,' she blurts out). She decides to make the suicide look more like a murder. With a few carefully placed clues here and a few footprints there, Camille has effectively turned this peaceful town upside down. Once the news of this gets out, we meet more of the pleasant townsfolk. They include another niece, Cora (Julianne Moore), grandniece Emma (Liv Tyler) and various other unprepared-for-murder-in-my-small-town police officers, including officers Boyle (Ned Beatty) and Brown (Chris O'Donnell). More disbelief occurs when circumstantial evidence points to Willis as the killer. He's innocent exclaims Boyle. How does he know? Well, as he puts it: `I fish with him.'
Cookie's Fortune isn't a murder mystery, and it isn't about one batty woman's attempt to salvage the dignity of the family name, as Camille would have you believe. Rather, Cookie's tragedy serves as a way for the movie to highlight the close-knit nature and the colorful characters that populate this small town. We like Willis and find humor in the laid-back attitudes of the citizens. We like Liv Tyler as a trampy vagabond who would rather skin catfish than do something better with her life. There are also the owners of a blues bar who exude radiance and a profound yet simple wisdom. They don't say much, but know quite a bit. Consider this film something of a church social where everyone you meet has an interesting story to tell.
Grade: B-
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