SWIMMING WITH SHARKS
Review by John Beachem
* * * * 1/2
Directed by: George Huang Written by: George Huang
Guy (Frank Whaley) is an aspiring writer who just landed the job of his dreams. He's going to be working for one of the biggest executives in show-biz, Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey). As Buddy's personal assistant, Guy will have the opportunity to go on to bigger and better things in time, as all of Buddy's previous assistants have done (one is directing all the Macaulay Culkin action pictures). Yep, Guy is certain that all his dreams are about to come true. Too bad for him, he's actually gone to hell. Buddy turns out to be the most evil, vicious boss ever to walk the planet, and Guy's life quickly becomes like that stuff you find underneath your toe nails. The only thing he has left is his relationship with Dawn Lockhart (Michelle Forbes), a producer who often works with Buddy. Then, after a year of dealing with Buddy's demands, something finally causes Guy to snap. One evening he enters Buddy's home, takes Buddy's gun from its secret hiding place, ties him up, and proceeds to make him pay for every insult and offense of the past year.
Make no mistake, "Swimming With Sharks" is one vicious little movie. It's the kind of film designed only for those people who like their humor black and bitter. If you're going in expecting a cute little story about a young guy trying to make it in Hollywood, you're in for quite a surprise. You have to not only be able to handle people acting in an appallingly base manner, but you have to be able to find it funny. If you can't do that, avoid this film like you'd avoid "Home Alone 4" (knock on wood that that never comes to be). Here's a quick quiz to see whether or not you'd enjoy the movie. Number one, do you find a man getting pencils, file folders, pens, and paper clips thrown at him while his boss mocks him to be funny? Two, do you find the thought of a man getting reemed by his boss for not knowing the difference between Sweet-N-Low and Equal funny? Three, do you find the thought of a man being tortured in various ingenious ways by his assistant to be repulsive? If you answered no to either of the first two questions, you might want to consider giving this one a miss. If you answered yes to the last question, definitely give this one a miss and go rent the latest Meg Ryan / Tom Hanks romantic comedy.
A lot of what makes the film so funny is the excellent cast. What makes this feat even more amazing is that the film is carried by only three actors. First up we have Frank Whaley ("Pulp Fiction"), playing a guy who bounces back and forth from being sympathetic, to being flat-out annoying. Whaley does an excellent job never letting the character fall too far into either of these categories. Whenever Guy gets to be too much of a schmuck, he gets reigned in to the point where we start disliking him as much as we dislike Buddy (okay, maybe not that much). Next up is Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro from Star Trek: The Next Generation), playing a woman who is good at giving orders, but doesn't seem to know what she really wants. I found it rather amusing that she asks Guy that question at one point, but we get the impression throughout the film that she isn't too sure what she's looking for either, bouncing from one man to another. Forbes does give a good performance, but she isn't given quite enough screen time. Last is Kevin Spacey ("American Beauty"), and were the film pure garbage, his performance alone would make it worth seeing. Never before have I seen a man walk the fine line between overacting and playing a character as a true monster so nimbly. He doesn't falter once, and I'll say just this. While his first Oscar may say it's for "The Usual Suspects", I can't help but think the Academy members were really thinking of his performance here. Benicio Del Toro ("The Usual Suspects") also makes a brief, but excellent, appearance as Buddy's former assistant.
An interesting thing happened to me while watching "Swimming With Sharks" for the first time. When the film first started I was laughing like an idiot every few minutes. Yet as it progressed, I laughed less and less. By the time the final third of the film hit I realized I wasn't laughing at all, and hadn't been for awhile now. Does the movie run out of laughs? Well, in a way, yes. However, I don't think that really does justice to what happened. Instead, the film slowly changes into something else entirely. What starts off as a string of brilliant comic moments changes into a more involving story about how cutthroat Hollywood really is. This is the debut film of George Huang, who actually worked as an assistant for a major Hollywood producer. Word has it he actually went through some of the horrors captured here, and it's no surprise that his script is tinged with just a touch of bitterness. For a first time writer/director, Huang proves remarkably adept behind the camera. His direction is astute, and his script has just the right blend of comedy and shocks.
While the flashbacks to Guy's life as an assistant are certainly funny, the real brilliance of the film is in the torture scenes. No, I don't mean the torture itself is brilliant (although it is quite imaginative), I mean the dialogue between Guy and Buddy is brilliant. Watching Buddy slowly turn the tables on Guy is astonishing because it's actually believable. Buddy is just the sort of man who could torture his torturer by pointing out his flaws. Guy, on the other hand, is just the sort of man who would be devastated by these flaws being made clear to him. The finale to this little exchange first struck me as contrived, but after watching it for a second time I realized it made perfect sense. I won't say how it all ends here of course, but if you watch the film, do one thing; before you brush the end off as I did, really think about what each characters says, and you'll notice a wonderfully hidden double meaning to everything being said. One final thing I want to note is the soundtrack. It really features only one instrumental piece by composer Tom Hiel being played over and over during key scenes. It's a great piece, but I wish Hiel had written more so I could get a soundtrack. "Swimming With Sharks" runs a decent 101 minutes. I'd recommend it to fans of Kevin Spacey and to those who love their comedy black as pitch. I give it four and a half out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews