Return of the Airport Paperback

Rating: 3/10 (3 August 2006)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Yet again, Clint Eastwood gets away with what a first-timer would be crucified for. This is not a good movie. This is not a well-made movie. This is not a deeply felt psychological thriller with resonance for all of us. This is a failed attempt by an airport paperback writer to be something bigger and better. And it is a failed attempt by a once brilliant director to regain his former glory. The emperor is naked and if this film takes a single award away from another one that deserves it, it will be a real crime.
Oh, no! Is there a **SPOILER** coming up? Let me break down to you why the film falls apart. The ending. There are several viable endings this film could have had, ones that at least would have ended such underwhelming proceedings on a solid note. Instead they chose none of these endings. Okay, so Penn sold out the 'mute' kid's old man. So the kid killed Penn's daughter for revenge, right? No. Okay, so he and his suddenly psychotic little friend killed her out of the 'mute' kid's jealousy, and fear of losing his brother, right? No. The 'Mute' kid (who, thank heavens, was at least less annoying than he was in the execrable 'Unbreakable') didn't even know about Penn selling out the father, neither did the one that wanted to marry Penn's daughter, total red herring. And they didn't plan it, they happened to lie down in the middle of the street and she happened to be coming by right then. Then they accidentally shot her. Then the killing was the 'Suddenly Psycho' other friend's fault, as he attacks the kid that wanted to marry her. Then we're told that they just killed her to cover up their mistake, and THEN we're told she was beaten because the 'mute' kid happened to have a hockey stick so he beat her with it. Presumably to keep time, I suppose. And the 'mute' kid isn't mute, so says his brother, but we get absolutely no evidence of this.
Let's keep going, with Marcia Gay Harden. She has been exceptional in a number of great movies, so I don't feel bad being a bit harsh here. What was she thinking? What was Brian Helgeland (whose 'Blood Work' and previous Eastwood scripts were on par with his own script for 'The Sin Eater' or 'The Order' which made 'Gigli' look coherent) thinking, or Lehane? She comes out doing every tell in the book, every indicator that no actor is supposed to even try to get away with, shouts 'My husband didn't kill anyone!' or something and then when Bacon (who rocked, by the way) says 'What?' she says 'Oh, nothing, nothing, I didn't say anything!' as if it wasn't plainly audible and then run away in diagonal patterns looking back over her shoulder and hyperventilating for 2 blocks while Bacon stands there watching her. Then in the last scene after Laura Linney has to do her Lady MacB turn Gay Harden is doing the same thing following her son, I expected to hear 'Pagliacci' on the soundtrack at that point and a slo-mo it was getting so lame.
How about Tim Robbins' character? He'd rather be thought a murderer of his friend's daughter than of some anonymous perv? His wife obviously suspects him and he never just tells her what's going on? She tells Penn instead of Bacon? Fishburne is totally wasted, and though Penn is being lauded everywhere it is really an external performance. Just like the author seems not to have any idea what any of these situations actually feel like, just what they look like, he doesn't take you with him where his character is going. It is ridiculous that he is being honored for this film instead of the far superior '21 Grams' in which he is still pretty inaccessible and/or not really that deeply layered.
Bacon is the only real revelation here. He at least deserves some kind of nomination and he's not going to get it.
Here is the real tragedy of this one. The film has technical mistakes of the kind not found in the first year of film school. 1) a boom mic dips into the shot on a Boston street and 2) during a long dolly shot in a cemetery the front row of headstones is highly reflective and you can see the entire dolly with cameraman sitting on it. 3) how about the kids at the beginning? They flip-flop the color of their hair and name the one that looks like Sean Penn 'Sean'! Oh, and how did killing the wrong guy that had nothing to do with anything make Penn's character the king of the neighborhood? There is too much more to cover in less than a whole book.
Stop pretending this is a good movie and pay attention to the ones that deserve it.
This comment was deleted off the site before because somebody complained because they did not agree with it. I have reposted it without changing anything because that is a pretty cowardly thing to do. If you don't like unrelentingly negative criticism, fall in love with a filmmaker that has retained some talent; I hear Terry Gilliam's new film might actually get a theatrical release. If you don't agree with it then try to refute it. And if you don't like it, lump it.