Simpatico (1999)

reviewed by
Ian Waldron-Mantgani


Simpatico       *1/2

Rated on a 4-star scale Screening venue: Home (Screener tape courtesy of Fine Line Features USA) Released in the UK by Alliance Atlantis on January 28, 2000; certificate 15; 106 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1

Directed by Matthew Warchus; produced by Jean-François Fonlupt, Dan Lupovitz, Timm Oberwelland. Written by David Nicholls, Matthew Warchus; based upon the original stage play by Sam Shepard. Photographed by John Toll; edited by Pasquale Buba.

CAST.....
Nick Nolte..... Vinnie
Jeff Bridges..... Carter
Sharon Stone..... Rosie
Catherine Keener..... Cecilia
Albert Finney..... Simms

"Simpatico" doesn't involve us in its story, so much as it blackmails us into it. Yes, I kept wondering what was going to happen next, but not because I cared -- I simply wanted to make sense of it all. The film's method is to throw a lot of bewildering information at us, and keep us watching by promising it'll all be sorted out by the end.

The main characters are Carter (Jeff Bridges), a successful businessman whose acres of property include a sleek country mansion, and Vinnie (Nick Nolte), an angry slob whose rotting bungalow lies in the middle of sandy nowhere. As the movie opens, Carter is getting ready to sell his family's prized racehorse, but is interrupted from the deal by a phone call from Vinnie, who orders him to come cross-country to see him. Carter immediately hops on a plane.

With the possible exception of Hugh Grant, millionaires don't often abandon their busy schedules to visit shady bums, so what strange hold does Vinnie have on Carter? After a lot of unspecific talk about 'the past", we learn that years ago the two men were involved together in gambling and bribery scams, and Vinnie has always held onto proof of these illegal actions that could destroy Carter's credibility in legitimate circles. Since Vinnie is more than a little unstable, Carter does not want to upset him, and appeases his old friend as much as he can. We get the sense that this arrangement has been going for quite some time -- Vinny making threats, Carter giving him things to keep him quiet.

Things may not, however, be so simple this time. Vinny is really starting to act like he'll do something with his evidence; perhaps he'll expose Carter, perhaps just re-open old wounds for the man's wife Rosie (Sharon Stone), whose part in her husband's extortion rackets left her permanently emotionally scarred.

Right there is, more or less, the whole story of "Simpatico", which unfolds in an odd manner: Characters pop up onscreen now and again talking about secretive things the audience don't know anything about. Flashbacks appear, to explain tiny pieces of the puzzle. Then come moments of quiet reflection.

While this deliberately perplexing method of storytelling must have seemed like a hot idea to the filmmakers, because it lets them stretch their meagre plot out to feature length, it leaves the audience at a loss to understand whether or not the actors' performances are any good. We're never let know what the motivations of the characters are, let alone whether these motivations are being played convincingly. Nolte and Bridges do a lot of grunting and shouting; Stone appears far too late in the film for her passionate anger to redeem the dullness of the script. Albert Finney, playing a man Vinnie and Carter ruined, does a lot of weird babbling in a typically terrible American accent; Catherine Keener, as a checkout girl who never wanted to be involved with a bunch of crooks, switches between tough cookie and gullible simpleton, often within the same scene. Maybe all this made sense in the Sam Shepard stage play upon which "Simpatico" is based. It doesn't in the movie.

This would have been a fascinating piece of work if the plot had been outlined in the opening twenty minutes, and the rest of the script had focused on the characters. Who are these people? Who were they? How do they feel about each other? How did the consequences of their swindles specifically affect them? "Simpatico" ignores all these potentially interesting avenues, trying to work on the level of its mystery alone -- mystery that isn't mysterious, just confusing.

COPYRIGHT(c) 2000 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

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