REVIEW
By Joy Wyse, the SILVER Screen Critic
The Minus Man, Starring Owen Wilson, Brian Cox, Mercedes Reuhl, Janeane Garofalo, Dwight Yoakum, Sheryl Crow. Directed by Hampton Fancher
The catch phrase for The Minus Man says that people will be talking about this film after they see it. Well, when I walked out of the theater I heard person after person saying the same thing….WEIRD!
Sheryl Crow is the first onscreen victim of serial killer Vann Siegert (Wilson) and she's not killed soon enough for me. The scenes involving her are slow and amateurish. It was a precursor of things to come. Vann feels that he is providing a service with his homicidal endeavors. He kills whenever he gets a `sign' that a person would be better off in the hereafter. He even has a set of rules. He doesn't kill anyone he knows, or anyone who lives in the same town with him. However, he breaks both of those rules in one single day.
Two imaginary detectives continually jump in and out of the action, visible only to Vann. This only makes it more difficult to follow the plot.
There is actually some very good acting in this film. Brian Cox and Mercedes Reuhl, are wonderful as Doug and Jane, a couple who take in Vann as a boarder. They have their own problems including the fact that Doug is a heavy drinker who likes to beat up on himself.
With Doug's help Vann manages to get a job with the Post Office. Now, there's a great place to have a serial killer working, right? He meets Ferrin (Garofalo), a fellow Postal worker who is attracted to this nice, sweet, attractive newcomer. Where does the plot go from here? Well, it doesn't go where you'd expect. This is an extremely slow-moving film, so slow that I had a lot of trouble staying awake. There were some people who dozed off, and others who left. They didn't get to see the very unusual ending. It is easily a movie that you can miss without regrets. If it's on latenight TV sometime, you might tune it in. It'll help put you to sleep. I give it a C-.
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