Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Michael Tolkin
Based on Novel: “The Rapture” by Michael Tolkin
Score: Thomas Newman
Released By: New Line
Year Release: 1992
Rated: R (language, nudity)

The Player is psychological thriller about how high rolling movie executive Griffin Mills, who is played by Tim Robbins, receives threatening postcards from an anonymous screenwriter who he once rejected. Once Mills thinks that he has figured out whom the vengeful screenwriter is, David Kahayne who is played by Vincent D’Ofornio, Mills hunts him down. While on the journey to find Kahayne and talk with him, he meets Kahayne’s icy Icelandic girlfriend, June Godmunsdottir who is played by Greta Sacchi. Mills and the icy Icelandic girlfriend flirt for a bit over the phone, then Mills makes his way over to a Pasadena movie theater where Kahayne is watching The Bicycle Thief. After the film Mills and Kahayne get into a conversation, which turns into a scuffle, and Mills accidentally kills Kahayne in the back of the theater. The problem is, Mills find out the next day from another life threatening message on his fax machine, that he killed the wrong screenwriter. Oops.

While police investigators are breathing down Mills’ neck about Kahayne’s murder, Mills also has to fight to keep his top-notch executive position against arch rival studio newcomer Larry Levy, played by Peter Gallagher.

The moral of this tale is that the sleazier, more backstabbing and competitive you are in the Hollywood game, the better you’ll do and the more successful you will be.

It is important for me to note that the plot is not what drives this film. In fact, the plot is thin and even quite outlandish. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief as each twisted turn left me saying to the film screen, “No way. That could never happen.” Then again, this is Hollywood we’re talking about, a place where the outlandish is business as usual.

What drives this film and what makes it such a cinematic classic is the clever relentlessness with which the film makes fun of Hollywood. The Player is a self-satire which very entertainingly pokes endless irreverent fun at itself.

Altman also did his part to choc the film full of cameos. To name a few: Julia Roberts, Burt Reynolds, John Cusack, Angelica Houston, Sydney Pollack, Cher, Bruce Willis. The list goes on with over forty cameo appearances in the film. There is something quite entertaining in watching these “top players” in Hollywood make fun of the game in which they are an integral part.

In an o-so-clever way Altman references in the beginning of the film the longest single shot in movie history, a record at the time held by Orson Wells in Touch of Evil. What makes this reference so clever is the fact that Altman is breaking this record as he makes reference to it, with the first shot in the movie being eight minutes long.

While it is a very clever piece of cinema with constant inside jokes, sometimes the jokes are too far on the inside, to the point where Joe-Moviewatcher like myself is left in the dark. My second and only other complaint about the movie is that the plot is a bit far-fetched. But then again this IS Hollywood we’re talking about, a world rapt in scandal and the home of the world’s shortest marriages. Perhaps such an outlandish plot COULD happen in such a place.

People who read the gossip columns as well as lovers of cinema will enjoy this behind this scenes look at Hollywood in the '80s.

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older