HARD EIGHT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a waitress and hooker who has a brain the size of a small reptile. She has recently married small time gambler John (John C. Reilly), whose IQ is a perfect match for hers. The night after their wedding finds them not having much luck. Her trick has refused to pay her $300 fee, so Clementine and John get rough with him. After handcuffing him and pistol-whipping him, they call his wife to demand Clementine's hard earned cash.
When this scheme goes awry, John calls his mentor Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) to bail them out. Ever laconic John tries to get them out of their predicament. This claustrophobic scene, which makes up the second act of the movie HARD EIGHT, feels as if it will never end, but at least something is happening, albeit painfully slowly.
The first act of the movie is much worse. The acting is superb, the problem throughout the picture is the script and the directing by first-time writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson writes and directs in the style of David Mammet (HOUSE OF GAMES), but he lacks Mammet's talent and insight. Mammet's characters speak in staccato cadence with lines full of power. Anderson's characters have little to say, and he makes sure they enunciate the words slowly so that we can ponder their non-meanings. Anderson's languid film noir may start a new genre of dark and inane pictures.
The film alternates between leaden prose and pregnant pauses. "I have the money now, this moment," Sid tells Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson). "I will give you all that I have." I found myself wondering what grade the script would get in a film school. Would the teacher be charitable and just suggest a rewrite or would it be deemed hopeless?
Cinematographer Robert Elswit is fond of still lifes. His camera lingers on close-ups of ashtrays full of burnt-out cigarettes and ashes to symbolize the character's lifestyles. Most of the scenes happen in Nevada's inexpensive casinos and hotels. His gritty and garish images of them make them menacing and lonely.
HARD EIGHT is a comedy without humor, a tragedy without emotion, and a story without meaning. Notwithstanding these flaws, the acting is uniformly good with my favorite being the stoic performance by Philip Baker Hall.
HARD EIGHT becomes an endurance test for the audience. Will a hundred people stick around for almost two hours hoping that sooner or later something will happen. In HARD EIGHT something eventually does, but was it worth the pain? I think not. I talked to another critic after the screening, and he said he thought about walking out on the film. I must admit, I was similarly tempted.
HARD EIGHT runs 1:41. It is rated R for violence and non-stop profanity. The show would be acceptable for most teenagers. I do not recommend the picture, and I give it * 1/2 only for the acting.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: February 25, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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