# Gingerbread Man, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Nikki Lesley

    The Gingerbread Man

    Director: Robert Altman.

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr., Daryl Hannah, Robert Duvall, Tom Berenger.

Based on a novel by John Grisham. 7 little words that usually send me running in the opposite direction. This time, however, the waters were muddied with the accompanying phrases: Directed by Robert Altman and Starring Kenneth Branagh, Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. On top of that, I'd read an interview with Robert Altman where he said something along the lines of "I sent the finished film to John Grisham. His response was that it was an interesting movie but nothing to do with him." I was sold. And so I headed off to the cinema in search of some Robert Altman magic.

My quest was only partially satisfied. The first hour or so of set up is brilliant. The film is set in Savannah, Georgia but instead of the usual long, hot, sultry days of the south in the U.S. of A., we have the precursor to a hurricane, rain, rain and more rain. The weather evokes a moodiness that suffocates and confuses, wonderfully complimenting the action up to the moment of confrontation between Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh) and Dixon Doss (Robert Duvall).

The acting throughout is superb, with Ms. Hannah as Lois Harlan giving a great performance. Similarly of high quality are the efforts of Mr. Branagh and Mr. Downey Jr., even to the point of fake southern accents, with only a word or two to give away that they aren't Savannah, born and bred.

I cannot say enough good about the first section of the film: the ambiance, the acting, the plot all weave together beautifully leaving me breathless and intrigued, with little idea of what is going on or, more to the point, who is behind it. My advice would be that once Magruder and Doss confront one another, leave the cinema: any ending you can think up will be better and more satisfying than the one presented in The Gingerbread Man.

On that score, much as I am a serious detractor of Mr. John Grisham, having once been trapped in a house with one of his novels, I cannot believe even he would have come up with such a simplistic and unconvincing ending. At least in his novels, badly written as they may be, there are wheels within wheels, plots and conspiracies. In The Gingerbread Man, there is none of that.

Even ignoring the insubstantiality of the plot, it makes no sense. Why would the trap that Magruder set about the will cause the reaction that it did? In the interest of not giving away too much of the plot, I'll stop there but rest assured, I could pick more holes, given the opportunity.

Perhaps the ending wouldn't have seemed quite so bad if the beginning hadn't been quite so good: a case of exciting one's anticipation. The reverse of The Devil's Advocate where the ending was so much fun, I left the cinema feeling much better about the movie than it deserved, perhaps in this case I am being wrongly harsh, having emerged from the movie theatre so let down. My recommendation: go see the movie and emerge, feeling smugly superior knowing that you could write a better ending. Of course, that feeling is only fleeting as you realise that these people are getting paid millions for their efforts.

    Rating: CR

    © Nikki Lesley 1997

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Nicole Lesley http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~nikki/ Basser Department of Computer Science, University of Sydney ph: (02) 9351 6098 rm: G90b email: nikki@cs.usyd.edu.au Movie Reviews: http://www.cs.su.oz.au/~nikki/m_r/Intro.html

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    Ratings System:

            HD: High Distinction
             D: Distinction
            CR: Credit
             P: Pass
            CP: Conceded Pass
             F: Fail

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