JACKPOT
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Sony Pictures Classics Director: Michael Polish, Mark Polish Writer: Michael Polish, Mark Polish Cast: Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Garrett Morris
"Go for it," and "Be all you can be" are the signature slogans of the free-spirited, capitalistic, ambitious folks; but don't dismiss as party-poopers the guys who say "Don't give up your day job." In "Jackpot," a fellow who never really had much of a day job (unless you count selling some overpriced gallon jugs of carpet cleaner) decides to hit the road in pursuit of the American Dream. Since Mark Polish, who wrote the screenplay and Michael Polish who directed the film have more in common with playwrights like Edward Albee and Arthur Miller than with the go-getters who appear on early-morning TV, they take a decidedly pessimistic view of a scheme by one Sunny Holiday (Jon Gries) while at the same time providing us in the audience with a sympathetic view of a man who even believes he has a good chance to hit the numbers in the lottery.
Starting out from somewhere in the central or western reaches of the U.S., Sunny plans to hit roadside karaoke bars, enter the competitions, and win the hundred bucks or so in each case by swaying the judges with his personality, his country-western looks, his day beard and ten-gallon at, and a voice that falls short of matching eorge Jones's. As he delivers his semi-mellifluous pitches to the pre-recorded sounds of some of the well-known country-and-western ballads, he learns something about himself while city-slickers in the audience get to eavesdrop on the karaoke circuit with which they may be only marginally familiar. Making plans with his buddy and manager, Lester Irving (Garrett Morris), Sunny--who despite his name is not too bright--abandons his ticked-off wife Bobbi (Daryl Hannah) and his one-year old daughter for a nine-months' tour that doesn't get him where he wants to go but allows him to meet and have a roll-in-the-hay or two with some of the blondes who regularly patronize or work the circuit of song.
Jackpot, Nevada--which is the ultimate destination of Sunny and Les--is apparently not just the Nashville of the karaoke beat but the obvious, metaphoric (and ironic) goal of pursuers of the American Dream. A road-and-buddy movie, the Polish brothers' feature is a road-and-buddy movie, deliberately paced (in other words, not the kind of tale that's likely to be mistaken for Rob Cohen's "The Fast and the Furious." By holding to a lingering gait, the Polish brothers get a chance to show what really counts in this sort of story--the details: the nervous tics by Sunny's brother Tracy (Anthony Edwards) whose confidence in the singer never palls; the assortment of gestures by Sunny's manager Les, who alternately chews him out and regularly puts their heads together in prayer before each performance; the small, flashing eyes of Bobbi, who is positively appalled by her man's desertion and stunned by the one-dollar lottery ticket he mails to her religiously every month as child support--sincerely believing he has a chance to hit the jackpot.
The meandering story is an acquired taste but a welcome antidote to the Michael Bay- Jerry Bruckheimer noisemakers, the explosions taking place not on the island of Oahu but solely within Sunny and Les's heads. We sit and wonder what it would take to get some sense into Mr. Holiday's head, something to counterbalance the outpouring of optimism that has made America the country that it is while at the same destroying many a person's soul.
Whether or not you'll dig the story, the movie is an important technical breakthrough as photographer M. David Mullen makes first use of a digital video format that shoots 24 frames per second to give the picture at least the clarity of high-definition TV. You could easily tell the difference between the look provided by the new technology and, say, the cinema-verite appearance of Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh's digital video recording of "The Anniversary Party." In fact we hear that George Lucas is currently shooting the second installment of "Star Wars" with this camera.
"Jackpot" has all the quirkiness of the Polish brothers' debut film, "Twin Falls Idaho," which featured Jon Gries and Garret Morris as well, a poignant and oddball tale about a pair of Siamese twins, one of whom falls in love with a hooker.
Rated R. Running time: 96 minutes. (C)2001, Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.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