Like wow, man -- deep soap dish!

Rating: 5/10 (15 October 1999)

This film is a nightmarish mix of PI, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, PSYCHO, and MATRIX with the old TV show "The Prisoner" thrown in for good measure. The theme seems to be that macho anarchy is the way to counteract society, social mores, and the social mask we all wear to cover who we really are.
One of the weird symbols in the story is soap -- it cleanses, but not in a true sense. It cleanses only out of our vanity and self-destructive need to erase who we are. Heavy, huh?
We get a pseudo-Thoreau blended with a psycho-Socrates rejecting phoniness by creating new phoniness and turning the Socratic motto of "Know Thyself" on its head. The film makes fun of support groups where people play "who's the biggest victim" by depicting characters who are tourists in their own life. Heavy again, huh?
There's an in-joke if you look carefully -- Brad Pitt's pretentious self-discovery epic 7 YEARS IN TIBET is playing at a theater in the background of one shot in the film. This seems to be a bit of self-mocking that this movie makes of its own self-discovery journey.
To sum it up, I can think only of a line from the wonderful actress Tallulah Bankhead: "Dahling, there's less here than meets the eye."