THE PLAYER
Robert Altman has long been considered one of Hollywood's mavericks, ever since bursting upon the scene in 1970 with his film M*A*S*H. In truth, that's probably a little overstated. Not that Altman hasn't had problems within the system; except for M*A*S*H and 1980's POPEYE - and to a lesser extent, 1975's NASHVILLE - he hasn't had a big hit film, which leaves him playing on the same side of the street as directors like Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen; directors you hire for prestige instead of box office. And because of that, he is not able to get the budgets others can get, or has his films buried in release schedules. Finally, he tends to make ensemble movies instead of the preferred star vehicles. Yet in interviews, Altman often comes across as someone who needs the system to rail against, because it gives him a purpose. And however much they might have twisted the genre around, the films Altman has made have included Westerns (McCABE AND MRS. MILLER), detective stories (THE LONG GOODBYE), musicals (NASHVILLE), the teen movie (O.C. AND STIGGS), and even a sci-fi film (QUINTET). Still, if you'd expect anyone to deliver a broadside against Hollywood, it would be Altman, and THE PLAYER certainly qualifies. While it isn't the masterpiece many said it was, it's still a terrific film as well.
One might expect a Hollywood movie by Altman to follow the lead of such films as SUNSET BOULEVARD and the recent THE BIG PICTURE and have the main character be a stand-in for Altman, a pure soul in a corrupt environment. Instead, Altman, filming Michael Tolkin's novel (which Tolkin adapted), portays the rotten system from within. Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a studio executive who's currently facing the situation most studio execs in Hollywood eventually face; he thinks he's going to get fired. It seems Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a younger executive, is getting to be an up-and-comer, and Griffin's hearing that his boss Joel Levison (Brion James) is grooming Levy for bigger things. Also worrying Griffin is that he's been getting threatening postcards, including one that says the writer will kill him in the name of all writers.
Griffin manages to track down the writer whom he thinks is responsible for the postcards, David Kauhane (Vincent D'Onofrio). After seeing him at a theater, Griffin takes Kauhane to a bar to smooth-talk him, but Kauhane will have none of it. Outside the bar, they get into an argument, and in a fit of rage, Griffin accidentally kills him. At first, he panics, but then it appears he's gotten away with it. Despite the fact that he's involved with Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson), a script exec at the studio, he even starts seeing Kauhane's girlfriend, June Gudmondsdottir (Greta Scacchi), an artist from Iceland. And when Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant), a brash writer, comes to pitch a script called HABEAS CORPUS, which he wants to be without compromises such as stars or happy endings, Griffin sees it as a way to sabotage Larry and get his career back. The only problem comes from Detectives Susan Avery (Whoopi Goldberg) and DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett), who are suspicious of Griffin for the murder, though they have nothing.
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