Dear Mom - Letters to Heaven

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Big Empty - Movie Review

This is another movie I can recommend and for repeated viewing. Usually I watch a movie once and rarely go back to it again. That's not a hard and fast rule the classics get repeat viewing and if a movie just makes me flat out laugh or enjoy then I go back for another look. In fact my DVD collecting has slowed way down because of this. The Big Empty has an array of characters that is just phenomenal. Favreau re-comprises his hard luck can't buy a break role and Joey Lauren Adams is her gal pal sexy self. Kelsey Grammer turns in a great performance. I would love to see him do more characters like this. I'm sick of the whole Fraseresque thing. Let's see something twisted and out of character Kelsey. Darrel Hannah drops in from out of left field and delivers a credible performance that puts to rest the whole "splash" I'm Jackson Browne's girlfriend hype and just acts her butt off. It was totally believable and I hope she's more like this in real life than that fluff image she originally portrayed. Rachel Lee Cook is awesome as Darrel's reckless daughter. Wouldn't you just tear off your right arm to have spent a corrupt youth growing up with her? Sean Bean as the Cowboy is brilliant and the role suits him to a tee.

The Big Empty feels suitably desperate ala the Last Picture Show at the beginning taking place in Baker California, and twilight zoneish at the end. One reviewer threw in comparisons to the Big Lebowski and certainly I agree. The outlandish behavior here walks a tighter rope as the mystery of it all takes center stage and then there is the ending. Great fun stuff, surprising, well shot and photographed, a little sexy and funny, everything you want a movie to be.

This is good movie and I highly recommend adding it to you Net Flix cue.


Paul
Author - Journey Home

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