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Steven Soderbergh's latest movie (after Out of Sight) is a
pretty cool but simple thriller (apparently in homage to 60s
cult faves like Point Blank and Get Carter). Although I found
nothing particularly special about it, the characters were interesting
and the story is told in an innovative fashion.
Terence Stamp is Wilson, a career criminal Cockney who, upon
release from his most recent stint in prison, heads to Los Angeles
to find out more about the death of his daughter. He suspects
foul play and this puts him on the trail of her boyfriend Terry
Valentine (Peter Fonda). The rest of the story is about Wilson
tracking down Valentine and their eventual climactic showdown.
Stamp puts on an interesting performance as Wilson, talking
in varying degrees of his Cockney dialect, depending on how
much he wants to be understood by whoever he is talking to.
Some people have found this to be annoying, but I thought he
carried it off in a way that made the character likeable despite
his criminal background. He is essentially a tough guy who doesn't
take no for an answer.
Supporting characters Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) and Ed (Luis
Gurzman) are pretty one dimensional and no satisfactory explanation
is given for why they would want to hang out with Wilson, especially
when most of the time they have no idea what he is saying.
The innovative part of this film is Soderbergh's choice of
narrative in which pieces of the story are told in random segments
completely out of chronological order, sometimes with characters
talking from one scene while a new scene appears on the screen.
This helps to keep things flowing nicely when actually very
little is happening at all. Also of interest is the footage
of a young Stamp from one of his old movies Poor Cow which is
nicely spliced into the story of this film.
An interesting thriller. Especially worth seeing if you have
ever been a Cockney in Los Angeles.
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