Film review: 'Simpatico'
There's no question that Sam Shepard writes deluxe roles for actors. His biting dialogue and tormented souls would get any actor's juices flowing.
"Simpatico", the film adaptation of Shepard's play, is no exception: It's a pleasure to watch Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sharon Stone and Albert Finney tearing their hair out over their anguished lives.
But the story itself fails to support these performances. After an energetic beginning when desperation suddenly grips the characters, the story slacks off into philosophical mumbo-jumbo about how freedom comes from detaching oneself from the rat race. Whether one buys this or not, too much detachment does not make for good drama.
With this stellar cast and Shepard's name, however, Fine Line should find a niche for "Simpatico" in adult specialty markets.
Making his feature debut, British stage director Matthew Warchus skillfully weaves together threads of past and present. In his and David Nicholls' adaptation of the play, they have added sequences involving the central characters in their younger days. These flashbacks allow the film to show how they became trapped by their mutual pasts rather than leaving it to the dialogue to tell us.
A vaguely threatening phone call from Vince (Nolte), a broken man living an edgy existence in Southern California, to Carter (Bridges), his pal and a millionaire horse breeder in Kentucky, triggers the action.
Carter drops everything -- including the sale of his Triple Crown winner, Simpatico -- to fly to Los Angeles to rescue Vince from his latest scrape. Only Vince isn't in a scrape. Having lured Carter to California, Vince steals his wallet and car and boards a plane to Kentucky. He means to peddle photos from the past that link both men and Rosie Stone) -- once Vince's girlfriend and now Carter's wife -- in a long-ago crime.
For reasons never explained, Vince has after all these years decided to sell these photos to a man the trio once blackmailed, Simms (Finney), a former racing commissioner who now goes by the name of Ames. The photos and other evidence will help Simms exonerate himself from a past scandal.
But at this point, with the makings of a thriller about blackmail and retribution under way, the movie does an abrupt turnabout.
Carter inexplicably stays in California and takes up Vince's slovenly lifestyle in his unkempt house. Simms could care less about exoneration. (This is Shepard's philosophical message, by the way: Simms' ruined career allowed him to detach himself and find true happiness.) Vince visits Rosie -- who tells him to get the hell out of her home -- and just like that, Vince has run out of people who might be willing to pay for their past mistakes.
There's also a subplot about an L.A. supermarket checker and horse racing enthusiast (Catherine Keener), whom Carter sends to Kentucky to bribe Simms. Instead she and Simms become friends, and he invites her to join him at the next Kentucky Derby. That means she's the only one to get anything out of the whole affair.
This feeble drama is well-mounted with superb camera work by John Toll and the glamour of Churchill Downs contrasting nicely with ramshackle Southern California locations.
SIMPATICO
Fine Line Features
Emotion Pictures and Canal Plus
in association with Kingsgate Film
Producers: Dan Lupovitz, Tim Oberwelland, Jean-Francois Fonlupt
Director: Matthew Warchus
Writers: Matthew Warchus, David Nicholls
Based on the play by: Sam Shepard
Executive producers: Sue Baden-Powell, Joel Lubin, Greg Shapiro
Director of photography: John Toll
Production designer: Amy Ancona
Music: Stewart Copeland
Costume designer: Karen Patch
Editor: Pascquale Buba
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vince: Nick Nolte
Carter: Jeff Bridges
Rosie: Sharon Stone
Simms: Albert Finney
Cecilia: Catherine Keener
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Simpatico", the film adaptation of Shepard's play, is no exception: It's a pleasure to watch Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sharon Stone and Albert Finney tearing their hair out over their anguished lives.
But the story itself fails to support these performances. After an energetic beginning when desperation suddenly grips the characters, the story slacks off into philosophical mumbo-jumbo about how freedom comes from detaching oneself from the rat race. Whether one buys this or not, too much detachment does not make for good drama.
With this stellar cast and Shepard's name, however, Fine Line should find a niche for "Simpatico" in adult specialty markets.
Making his feature debut, British stage director Matthew Warchus skillfully weaves together threads of past and present. In his and David Nicholls' adaptation of the play, they have added sequences involving the central characters in their younger days. These flashbacks allow the film to show how they became trapped by their mutual pasts rather than leaving it to the dialogue to tell us.
A vaguely threatening phone call from Vince (Nolte), a broken man living an edgy existence in Southern California, to Carter (Bridges), his pal and a millionaire horse breeder in Kentucky, triggers the action.
Carter drops everything -- including the sale of his Triple Crown winner, Simpatico -- to fly to Los Angeles to rescue Vince from his latest scrape. Only Vince isn't in a scrape. Having lured Carter to California, Vince steals his wallet and car and boards a plane to Kentucky. He means to peddle photos from the past that link both men and Rosie Stone) -- once Vince's girlfriend and now Carter's wife -- in a long-ago crime.
For reasons never explained, Vince has after all these years decided to sell these photos to a man the trio once blackmailed, Simms (Finney), a former racing commissioner who now goes by the name of Ames. The photos and other evidence will help Simms exonerate himself from a past scandal.
But at this point, with the makings of a thriller about blackmail and retribution under way, the movie does an abrupt turnabout.
Carter inexplicably stays in California and takes up Vince's slovenly lifestyle in his unkempt house. Simms could care less about exoneration. (This is Shepard's philosophical message, by the way: Simms' ruined career allowed him to detach himself and find true happiness.) Vince visits Rosie -- who tells him to get the hell out of her home -- and just like that, Vince has run out of people who might be willing to pay for their past mistakes.
There's also a subplot about an L.A. supermarket checker and horse racing enthusiast (Catherine Keener), whom Carter sends to Kentucky to bribe Simms. Instead she and Simms become friends, and he invites her to join him at the next Kentucky Derby. That means she's the only one to get anything out of the whole affair.
This feeble drama is well-mounted with superb camera work by John Toll and the glamour of Churchill Downs contrasting nicely with ramshackle Southern California locations.
SIMPATICO
Fine Line Features
Emotion Pictures and Canal Plus
in association with Kingsgate Film
Producers: Dan Lupovitz, Tim Oberwelland, Jean-Francois Fonlupt
Director: Matthew Warchus
Writers: Matthew Warchus, David Nicholls
Based on the play by: Sam Shepard
Executive producers: Sue Baden-Powell, Joel Lubin, Greg Shapiro
Director of photography: John Toll
Production designer: Amy Ancona
Music: Stewart Copeland
Costume designer: Karen Patch
Editor: Pascquale Buba
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vince: Nick Nolte
Carter: Jeff Bridges
Rosie: Sharon Stone
Simms: Albert Finney
Cecilia: Catherine Keener
Running time -- 106 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/20/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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