Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Express Through Anadarko

The Killer Inside Me (2010)
directed by Michael Winterbottom
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

The big problem with 24 Hour Winterbottom's movie is that it's an adaptation, not just for people familiar with Jim Thompson's novel, but for fans. The same could be said of No Country for Old Men, of course, but how would Thompson the screenwriter edit the details that Winterbottom won't leave out? Should the union subplot make the cut? Lou's brother, even? Lou's mom? It's all here, deliberate as a grocery store shopping list.

I'm tempted to watch The Killing this weekend just to make my point, but all you need to know is that good intentions don't necessarily make good movies. To be sure, there are plenty of beautiful shots of Oklahoma and New Mexico from the inside of old cars. The violence is every bit as messy and ugly as it should be. But too many of the actors are cast because they look like someone they don't quite fit, and part of that, I know, is financing.

Casey Affleck isn't ever the Lou Ford who lives uneasily in my mind, but he looks about Lou's age (young), and that high, faint voice at least has an original drift. The same isn't true for the director, who might as well be spooning a bowl of porridge, and you can't help but wonder what this movie could have been back when, when a good book was a starting point and studio men were ruthless surgeons. Cut, cut, cut.

Incidentally, was Tom Cruise really once up for this role? In honor of dear old Stanley, perhaps? Have any of you ever seen a chicken?

"I'd finished my pie and was having a second cup of coffee when I saw him."