it would be easy to miss the point of a film like 'hurlyburly' . that is if it had one . i've been a movie critic for 15 years and i don't think i've ever seen a more pointless film that rambles on and on and on like a broken record and when it's over , it's no closer to having said anything in its final 10 minutes than in its opening running time of the same length . set in hollywood hills , eddie and mickey ( sean penn and kevin spacey ) play room mates who are successful talent agency executives and are well on their way to becoming major hollywood players . they wallow in all the excesses of classic tinsel town life . snorting cocaine , picking up drifting hookers and bringing them home for wild sex , indulging themselves in the extremes of alcohol . and when it's all said and done , it's real but you won't care one bit . also along for the socially unredeeming ride is phil ( chazz palminteri ) . phil is an ex-con who always wears a leather jacket and tries to pass himself off as the gq end of the movie business . nothing more than a hollywood wannabe , phil wants to be a stuntman and goes on endless cattle calls only to be passed over each time he auditions . quick tempered and having had many different children with many different women , phil is perhaps the most amoral of the bunch and his fate is of little consequence or surprise . others characters in the film are artie ( gary shandling ) . artie is a close friend of eddie and mickey's who pops by for the occasional boys night out and his character is perhaps the most pointless male in the film . the female characters are even more disappointing . meg ryan is bonnie , a stripper with a child who comes to party at the whim of a phone call . robin wright penn is darlene , an actress struggling to make it with more than just her talent and anna paquin is donna , a drifter and air head who looks for her next meal ticket and place to call home around every corner . 'hurlyburly' has a companion film in 1998 known as 'high art' . this film knew when to listen and when to keep quiet . it displayed the seedy side of big city life , the consequences of drug use , and low morals with polish and a sedated side to its personality . 'hurlyburly' is like a car wreck with no chance to breathe , an extremely high decibel level , and a screenplay by david rabe , based on his play , that tries too hard to look like a well written piece of art when it is nothing more than a two hour play on semantics with a calculating sense of the preposterous . director anthony drazan is a slave to the film's screenplay , adding no injection of his own vision and there is a scene in the final third of the film where eddie and darlene have sex and upon leaving the bed , the long arm of a boom mic is visible in a mirror for about thirty seconds ! this really is professional film making ? ! how a cast like this could be coaxed into such a mess is a mystery . despite their energy and convincing styles , i suspect that they wanted to make a film with long takes , limited editing and a chance to put any actor's true test of talent ( the stage ) on celluloid in a filmed stage play that is as desirable to watch as falling into a bottomless pit . 
