| He's Still Sam |
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| written by talltale |
April 25, 2005 - 12:42 PM PDT |
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4 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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Few films of the past year received such divergent notices as did THE ASSASINATION OF RICHARD NIXON. Critics and friends who'd seen the film had such strong feelings--sometimes quite the opposite from what I might have predicted on the basis of their usual judgments. Now that I've seen it, I'm a little flummoxed. Yes, it deals with our materialistic society and how the individual fits into this. But the individual here is such a creepy loser, what's the point?
The movie is consistently watchable and interesting, however, and Sean Penn (as does everyone else in the cast) comes though in fine form. Yet, by film's end, the accumulation of incident and character is so heavy and dark, as though nothing remotely positive could be allowed to intrude. And, since the filmmakers explain via the end credits that this is a fictionalized account, one begins to wonder at at the point of it all and just how much we viewers have been manipulated.
Had we been privy to even a few moments of Sam Bicke as a remotely normal human being, we might buy into how a man this troubled could land a job, wed a nice looking wife and help raise three kids with her, and keep a long-term friend like the intelligent and decent character played by Don Cheadle. But no, it's all downhill, with every step steeper and darker than the previous. This is a sad story, all right, and it's well executed. But damned if I can find anything worth learning from the experience. |
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