# Palmetto (1998)

### reviewed by
David Sunga

    PALMETTO (1998)

    Rating: 1.5 stars (out of 4.0)
    ********************************
    Key to rating system:
    2.0 stars - Debatable
    2.5 stars - Some people may like it
    3.0 stars - I liked it
    3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
    4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
    *********************************
    A Movie Review by David Sunga

    Directed by: Volker Schlondorff

Written by: E. Max Frye (based on the James Hadley Chase novel JUST ANOTHER SUCKER)

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Chloe Sevigny

    Ingredients:
    Con artists, patsy, kidnapping scheme

Synopsis: Two con artists find the perfect patsy in Harry (Woody Harrelson) - - an inept former journalist who trips and bumps his head into a post, tries to slap a girl and gets poked in the eye, has ill-timed fits of coughing, and fails at everything he does.

The story is told from Harry's point of view. Harry always carries around a shot of whiskey although he swears he doesn't drink. One day Harry is approached by the con girl Rhea (Elisabeth Shue), who is similar to Harry in that she carries around a cigarette but swears she doesn't smoke. Seduced, Harry agrees to participate in a money-making scheme involving faking the kidnapping of Odette (Chloe Sevigny), the teenage daughter of a rich man. Turns out, it's all part of a needless, very puzzling, extremely elaborate and convoluted scheme (it involves hiring special impersonators) by two cons in order to fool Harry, a hero who barely has the intellectual capacity of a wooden post.

When the 'kidnapped' Odette is found dead, the clues point to Harry as the kidnapper/murderer, and the police are hot on Harry's trail. Harry suddenly realizes he has been framed while others have taken the ransom money. Can he get out of this mess?

Opinion: PALMETTO is a long, uninteresting film with all the wrong feel. Hero Harry is an inept bungler who trips up often and consistently overestimates his own intelligence. This farcical kind of character works best in an entertaining NAKED GUN action comedy or DRAGNET spoof. But PALMETTO is played like a dark, serious, detective noir drama, and watching Harry's bumbling confidence amounts to an irritating distraction.

There's a lapse in concentration in the middle of the movie as the camera goes wild on breasts, buttocks, short skirts, colored painted nails, and women's legs. Even when the focus is supposedly on Harry and his dilema, you can always notice the side of Elizabeth Shue's breast forming a prominent foreground.

Towards the end, PALMETTO re-focuses on plot for the grand finale - - a confusing explanation involving impersonators, with Woody Harrelson handcuffed and suspended over a tub of acid as he hears the criminals' confession.

If you can imagine 'Shemp' from the THREE STOOGES playing the detective hero of an HBO 'lingerie suspense' thriller, that's how out of synch this movie feels.

    Reviewed by David Sunga
    February 21, 1998

    Copyright © 1998
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