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Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

**1/2

Cinema Reviews - Week of March 14, 2003

Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA. 113 minutes. Directed by George Clooney. Written by Charlie Kaufman; based on the book by Chuck Barris. Starring Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer, Maggie Gyllenhall.

There is a scene in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" where Chuck Barris flashes back to his younger days, and tells us he's not crazy about the idea of marriage because he saw how his parents turned out. We see an image of two kinda drab-looking folks from the 1940s -- the dad sits on the couch, staring at the wall; mother is in the kitchen, and all she has to say is, "We need a new ice box."

The reflection makes its point, but should somehow be more. It doesn't have enough force as either comedy or drama. Moments like that click into focus why the movie is lacking in power. There's nothing wrong with it, exactly, and when stretches go right, they develop an impressive, invigorating energy. But something is missing. The film begins as a sharp warped comedy and ends with desperate reflections on the mess and guilt of a wasted life -- in the middle, it sits there, not quite as funny or sad as it should be.

Chuck Barris was bigger in America than over here -- he became famous in the 1960s as one of the contributors to the decline of society, inspiring the evolution of reality TV with shows like "The Dating Game" and "The Gong Show". In his autobiography, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", Barris also claimed to have killed 33 people. He was an independent contractor for the CIA, the story went, and he wiped people out all over the world as a sideline to his travelling alongside game show contestants.

Outside of the book, Barris has no official line on whether his spy story is true. According to the Guardian, a CIA official has been quoted as saying, "We make it a practice not to say who is or isn't in the CIA. But in this case we'll make an exception. Chuck Barris is not." For the purposes of fiction, I suppose it matters little what the truth may be -- either this is a terrific tall tale about a guy who led an insane dual life, or it's about a guy insane enough to think up one.

The movie begins with the early life of Barris, zipping through his charmless childhood and teens, and putting in context the performance of Sam Rockwell, who gives us crass obnoxiousness with manic enthusiasm. Barris is a goof who clumsily works his way up the ladder in television, all the while desperate for girls, prone to barfights and never very happy. The early scenes are satirical about Barris as a loud, unwanted loser when trying to score personally and professionally, and a bemused one when asked to become a killer for hire. There are a lot of exaggerated low-angle shots of military training camps, where beefy generals with football coach voices shout instructions on the best ways to do away with commie scum. There is also the performance of George Clooney, who pops up now and again as the CIA contact, a disturbingly quiet guy who calmly drops bombshells about how much embarrassing trivia he has on Barris's past. Watching Rockwell raise his eyebrow, vulgarly complain and stagger through all this is a lot of fun.

It's seen in overexposed, highly colourful photography, and on the soundtrack are a lot of good old pop tunes, and the seamless mix of new scenes with archive footage from Barris game shows seems to have no boundaries -- Rockwell strides across the jumble of visual materials, and sometimes the backdrops are just illusions all together, and give way to match with other things. You'll see what I mean. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" has been assuredly directed by Clooney, in his first job behind the camera, and he has assembled a fabulous cast, with famous actors cleverly used in tiny roles to make amusing little points. The brief appearances of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon get the biggest laugh, and in some of the key supporting roles are Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer and Maggie Gyllenhall.

The movie feels like it's going to be great, and it carries on feeling that way for a long time, but takeoff just never happens. I think the problem may be that the comedy of the opening ends up drifting into sentimentality -- not the kind you want to laugh at, but more the sort that seems distant and hard to care about. Rockwell's voice-over starts out viciously self-deprecating, and it ends up seriously confessional without being profound. Basically, he starts to pour his heart out inventively and ends up merely moaning that he sucks. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" announces itself as a movie with the capability to be sad and funny at the same time -- when it drifted into merely the sadness, I didn't get bored, but did find myself unstirred. We've already been told that Barris is a loser; the movie drops its sense of humour about that point, but doesn't find a way to make it especially moving, and creates a feeling of slowly running out of conviction.

COPYRIGHT© 2003 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

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