Weekly Review -- Satirizing the satire

The Player (1992) -- Robert Altman's films are almost always conversational art pieces. His proceedings put a multitude of characters through a grind that is often shown from a neutral perspective, but that sometimes also verges on the surrealist, as is the case with The Player. High-powered movie studio executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is dealing with a lot of issues. Not only is he about to become a former hotshot in the fickle world of Hollywood politics, but he has also been receiving threatening postcards from a writer he shunned in the past. The problem is that Mill has no clue as to who this writer is, what with all the scripts that found their way to his shredder. After an unfortunate crime is committed and Mill gets involved with an enigmatic foreigner (Gretta Scacchi), his past and present transgressions threaten to catch up with him... The Player is one of those films that reveals more and more of itself upon each viewing. The journey of the principal character, lacking redemption though it is, manages to spin a tale of an individual in a milieu that does not exactly value standing out or standing up for anything. We do not know what kind of man Mill used to be, back when he himself was a fresh-faced beginner in the cutthroat entertainment business; what we do know is that his morals are at an all-time low and that, at this point, he is grasping at straws, torn between salvaging the remains of his humanity and the debris of his career. Robbins gives a nuanced performance as a man who lost his soul a long time ago and is trying, in vain, to regain it. His best moments are in the scenes he shares with Scacchi, who brings sensitivity and naïveté to the character of June, a character auspiciously clad in white and drawn outside of the Hollywood tableau. Mill and June click instantly and, as their relationship progresses, it traverses the realms of confidante and confessor, saint and sinner, lover and loved, and always polar opposites; indeed, it is June's sanity that pulls Mill to her, but it is her affection for reality that juxtaposes the caricature of his own, mostly fake, existence. Other cast notables include Vincent D'Onofrio, who is a picture of jaded disappointment as a spurned writer, and Cynthia Stevenson as Mill's hapless girlfriend. The erudite screenplay reflects the irony and hypocrisy of an industry that sucks innocence out of dreamers more often than not. The celebrity cameos -- among them Cher, Harry Belafonte, Burt Reynolds and Angelica Houston -- are welcome and perfect for the story's context, while the ending is satisfyingly tongue-in-cheek. The Player is sure to rock any preconceived notions that you may have about the movie business, and its brittle humor will make you laugh and cry... unless, of course, you are still bold enough to test the shark-infested waters. Good luck.

9/10