Watched: 05/17/2025
Format: Prime
Viewing: First
Director: Rich Cowan
The cast in this thing is absolutely wild. James Spader. Peter Coyote. Aidan Quinn. Robin Tunney. Alice Krige. Matthew Davis. and, of course, Lacey Chabert.
I am guessing this was a straight-to-DVD movie. It's a kind of throwback to 1940's post-war melodrama that might have been categorized as noir, but does feel decidedly 00's. And, once again, I see the idea here, even if the execution left me mostly flat.
I can see all of the casting as being spot on. But the movie's plot itself is insane and absurd. Maybe it could have worked with a different director. Lighting. Something. What's weird is - they have the sets, they have the talent (mostly), but it feels like it was shot as a TV movie that happens to contain actors doing a pretty good job with a pretty ridiculous movie. There's one scene where a guy - I think nameless, but impacted by our villain - is *acting* and I want to be, like, my guy... it's okay. You can dial it back. You care more than the director. And that may be true of everyone in the cast.
Matthew Davis plays a young real estate guy who is having a hard time and is married to the daughter (Tunney) of a Senator (Peter Coyote), I believe. Leaving a Men's Club sort of evening in the rain, he hits a guy on the road and kills him - and immediately decides to hide the body in the woods to protect his possible future. That's a baller set-up.
But the next morning he learns that a bank robbery had occurred the night before, and $200K has gone missing. And he thinks he killed one of the robbers (and the money is still out there).
Basically, Spader (of course) is our baddie, who is manipulating the rich folks of a smaller town. And he offers his Spadery services as an attorney to Davis, who accepts, only to fall into a web of entrapment as Spader blackmails everyone in town for their vices.
I'll say this - Robin Tunney chooses to just look miffed for the entire movie and manages to accidentally make her should-be-sympathetic character pretty unlikable. Chabert is the comedic relief as Tunney's younger sister who wants to be on Davis, Tunney's husband. She even gets in a Mean Girls reference somehow. She's really funny in this. They need to let her do more comedy.
But the whole movie feels flat, like they don't know what to do with the actors now that they have them. The look is dull and lifeless, mostly. You get the feeling this could have been something. But making movies is hard.
Is it stupid?
I mean, this is a wheels-inside-wheels kind of story, and I appreciate how all of that was supposed to work. I wish the production team had been up to the acting and ideas in the script.
I am pretty sure a guy like Spader's character would end up dead in an alley trying what he's trying, but it's kind of fun to see him in full-blown evil bastard mode. He doesn't even want money! He just wants to fuck with people. Chase your dreams, kids.
I am not sure Matt Davis was the right guy for the lead, but... I don't want to drag someone too much when they're being asked to carry a movie with iffy direction.
Again, I think Chabert is a highlight here and hangs perfectly well with the name talent. Someone should let her play daffy more often.
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