User reviews

If you go to the movies to feel good about life, to feel all warm and fuzzy about the world around you, then "Rick" isn't for you. However, if you delight in stories that revel in the darker side of human nature, that have a nasty sense of humor, then this incredibly dark comedy might be just the film for you.

Based on Verdi's opera, "Rigoletto," editor-turned-director Curtiss Clayton brings to life a script by Daniel Handler, better known to audiences as the "Lemony Snicket" author. In "Rick," Bill Pullman plays the title character, a man who works at a company called Image, though we're never told what exactly he or the company do. His boss Duke, almost half Rick's age, engages in machismo talk and has a penchant for online chats on a porn I'm service.

To reveal more would be to destroy much of the fun of this very wicked film.

"Rick" actually goes way beyond dark comedy. Pullman gains tremendous glee from playing someone loathsome. Come to think of it, with the exception of Rick's teen-age daughter Eve (played by the marvelously talented young actress Agnes Bruckner), there really aren't any likable people in this movie.

And Eve, who's the only one who sees the good in her dad, isn't exactly squeaky clean. She gets her kicks by "talking" dirty on the Internet. Bruckner, whose depiction of an emotionally scarred high school student in "Blue Car" was one of last year's highlights, finds just the right mix of confidence and innocence to make Eve believable.

Often, it is hard to be absorbed by a film where none of the characters seems to have any redeeming virtues. But, strangely, "Rick" manages to hook us. Mostly because we're initially intrigued by who these people are and why they behave so despicably. Watching Rick berate a woman interviewing for a job is uncomfortable. Yet, there's something hypnotic about the whole sequence.

This is extremely broad social satire veering into the absurd. This film is filed with several odd moments. The interview aside, there's the initial macho gamesmanship between Rick and Duke (played by Aaron Stanford as a slimy creature, quite a departure from playing 15-year-old Oscar Grubman in "Tadpole"). Then there's Buck (Dylan Baker), who meets Rick in a bar where people spy on other patrons. Buck tells Rick he runs his own company. There's a funny joke about that when Rick sees Buck's business card.

"Rick" is by no means a perfect dark comedy. But it definitely has a strange way of keeping you interested in its characters. They may not be likable but, damn it, they're most certainly intriguing and captivating. If you're in the mood for something out of the ordinary and you relish films that dabble in morally decrepit people, give "Rick" a peek. I've seen better films this year, but this one will stick in my mind for a long time.

To say that "Rick" is a black, bleak, despicable and vile wretch of a film is an understatement of solemnly epic proportions, but this doesn't mean it's not worth seeing.

There are great performances, especially from the always-superb Bill Pullman who - I have to say it - pulls out all the stops here in his portrayal of a man who has rotted from the inside (his wife was murdered for pocket change) and is still forced to go on living. "We can do this," is the motto of the company he works for, and this is but one tiny little irony in a film that is virtually overloaded with them, some subtle and some blatantly in-your-face obvious, but in the end, they all work, because the film is edited properly, with not one frame that doesn't belong. See it with someone you thoroughly despise.

When the Munich Filmfest 2004 offered "Rick" I was delighted. Because I love Verdi/"Rigoletto" and I happen to think that Bill Pullman is a very fine actor. (Whom I would like to see on stage; the biggest compliment I have to offer, Mr. Pullman -) However, I was/am deeply disappointed because this "adaptation" of a tragedy of Shakespearean or Greek dimensions, excepting one short moment, just didn't come off. To start with, Rick is such a hard-core bastard (much more so, mark you, than Rigoletto when, mistaking or over-doing his role as jester, laughs off the sorrow of a grieving father) that his janus-faced attitude of a loving father is about as 'convincing' as a square football! Moreover, his daughter Eve, apart from being a fairly attractive young female, has none of Gilda's characteristics. On the contrary, she's arrogant, spoiled, thoughtless, pretty ruthless and - in her own way - heartless. Very much like 'Duke' in fact whose part doesn't even begin to work, and remains shapeless and pale throughout the film. Thus, by victimizing Eve accidentally the writer and director achieve little more than a "Too bad"-reaction. And there are aeons between this and the suicide of Gilda, who knows only too well that she deliberately sacrifices her life for a man unworthy of her love.

However, there is ONE moment in "Rick" that is worthy of great drama/tragedy. And we owe it to (apart from Mr. Pullman) Ms Sandra Oh who (as Michelle) curses Rick in a night bar so vehemently, ferociously and convincingly that it took my breath away! Wow, WHAT a scene, what an actress!

"Rick" transposes the plot of "Rigoletto" to the world of New York big business sans the music. It's a nice, if obvious, dark little picture that almost no-one has seen. Bill Pullman is the corporate whizkid whose dirty dealings and total disregard for people's feelings come back to haunt him when he is 'cursed' by Sandra Oh's waitress that he's been particularly nasty to, (he gets her fired from her job for starters). Pullman is fine, (he's an underrated actor at the best of times), as is Aaron Stanford as his slimy younger boss and the movie is just nasty enough to make an impact. No classic then but far from being a dog either.

"Rick" is an example of a decent indie film that never realized its potential.

The premise of the film was great, especially the early sequence in which the greedy, callous, executive Rick O'Lette (Bill Pullman) is unbearably rude to a young woman named Michelle interviewing for a job (Sandra Oh). In the film's best scene, Michelle lays a "curse" on him, which he instantly recognizes will come to pass.

Unfortunately, the rest of film was predictable and one-dimensional. Apart from Pullman, Oh, and Agnes Bruckner (who plays O'Lette's daughter), the acting wasn't very good. Also, there was overkill on the scoring that called major attention to the music, as opposed to utilizing the sound to support the dramatic moments.

It was unfortunate that Sandra Oh's character Michelle was not developed throughout the movie. We needed to learn more about her background and the "curse" that was her design on the evil Rick O'Lette.

For a good film dealing with the theme of corporate greed and the personal toll it can take on a family, "In Good Company" succeeds in every area where "Rick" ultimately fails.

This movie moved in such a quick and informative cycle I felt I couldn't spare 3 minutes to grab a feed bag and a bottle. I can't remember any movie I've seen lately being as captivating and quick.

The cast plays the characters in an alternately despicable and delectable, very off-hand way. Who to loathe... more? Many characters are disastrous self-absorptions.

Especially notable are the performances of Sandra Oh, Bill Pullman and Dylan Baker. I guess the most notable performance award from me goes to the guy who played Bill Pullman's boss (BIGBOSS), because I disliked that character so much I forgot to even look up the actor's name.

Details, details, delicious details are all over this film. The constantly changing phone number on BUCK's business card. The changing wallpaper, the distant behaviour of the friend of Rick's daughter. Rick's office door opening in different directions in different scenes.

This movie is worth every moment. I voted so high because I watched it on cable and I couldn't pause it and I wouldn't go pee.

Frankly, I found it to be a very captivating movie full of captivating characters full of honest hope and blind faith.

"Rick" is loosely based on Rigoletto, the tragic clown of Verdi's opera. Don't look to this film to find any parallel between the tragic court jester and the man at the center of it, Rick O'Lette, as the film is loosely based on the opera.

Curtiss Clayton, an editor who has started to direct his own projects, is an enormously talented man, as he shows with this indie film that we missed when it was released. "Rick" also has the powerful writing of Daniel Handler, who wrote the screen play. The film was a neat discovery, perhaps because we had no expectations of what was coming. Much credit is owed to its director who shows great style in telling the story for the screen.

If you haven't seen the film, perhaps you would like to stop reading here.

Rick, who we meet at the beginning of the film walking to his office, is one of the new breed of heartless executives, occupying important places within a company. As such, he is a man that feels above and beyond people like Michelle, an eager job applicant, who commits the sin of entering Rick's office when she shouldn't, only to interrupt Rick from watching the results of sports on his computer. When he finally calls her, he proceeds to belittle the young woman in a manner that is completely uncalled for. Of course, Michelle doesn't get the job!

We then meet Rick's boss, a ninety day wonder called Duke, who is just as obtuse as his employee, and much younger. A punk in business attire. Duke is just a repulsive individual who loves to visit porno chat rooms to get his kicks. Later that night while drinking, Rick and Duke find out Michelle, the would be employee, is their waitress at the club. Rick is completely offensive toward the woman, who has had it and she proceeds to tell him off, and is fired because of it. Michelle tells Rick, in no uncertain terms, that she hopes he will have to suffer for all what she has put her through. Never were these words more fitting.

Things are not much better at home where we see Eve, Rick's daughter chatting on the computer. Eve is a sad young woman. Evidently her mother has died, although nothing is revealed as to what happened. Rick, as a father shows not much warmth toward Eve.

When a former college friend, mysteriously visits Rick, we are not ready for what is coming next. Buck has a proposition for Rick that, at first, he is reluctant to comply with, but in retrospect, he goes along, but he has no clue of what an ironic fate awaits Rick at the end. It's almost as though the curse Michelle put on Rick had its effect when he least expected it.

Bill Pullman makes Rick a despicable individual without any redeeming qualities. Mr. Pullman does a wonderful job to convey this yuppie with the heart in the wrong place. The beautiful Agnes Bruckner plays Eve, Rick's daughter, who knows much more for her young age than some older, more experienced person. She is one of the best of the new actresses acting in films these days. Aaron Stanford is the reptilian Duke. Sandra Oh is wonderful as Michelle. Dylan Baker, a great character actor of stage and screen has a few excellent moments as Buck.

This is a film that should be seen by a wider audience. It proves that Curtiss Clayton is a director to be reckoned with.

this movie showed a lot of promise in the beginning, effective in its displays of style, sadism, humor, and even maybe some sensitivity.

but as the film went along, and the ending came within site and it was clear where the film was going, you become angry at the laziness of the filmmakers in devising the ending and also become angry at them for stupidly misusing their artistic gifts (which were on display in this movie) to come to a conclusion that they probably think was iconoclastic but actually was just pathetic.

i registered solely to tell all the potential viewers of this film that if you watch this movie, be prepared to despise everyone involved in this film after the credits role.

so if i'm not being crystal clear here, i hope the director and the writer on this film never are allowed to be involved in any way whatsoever with another movie I lay eyes upon.

Bill Pullman stars as the title character Rick, a mean spirited businessman who does not care who he has to step on or what he has to do in order to get ahead.

The movie starts when he goes overboard with an interviewee (Sandra Oh)one day and not only insults her, but costs her her current job as well. He shows little regard for her and she loses it and "curses" him. Of course, from this point forward, he seems to have bad luck, but nothing too abnormal. At least not for awhile.

I did not care for this movie because it made you sit through some pretty boring drivel and it does not pay off in the end. In fact, it becomes pretty predictable. I also got a bit of an incestuous vibe from Pullman's character and that of his daughter, Eve, played by Agnes Bruckner (who is very beautiful and probably the best thing about this movie). This does not seem to have any purpose, therefore does not sit well with me, either. Also, too many coincidences to make the movie as unbelievable as it is boring. Pullman does not pull off the performance you would expect here and to be honest, I really can not recommend it. I give this movie 4 out of 10.

Routine, slightly interesting story of "what goes around comes around" variety. A rap music piece with extremely offensive sexual lyrics plays in an office scene, early on, and then blasts for 5 minutes or more during the office party scene.

Unnecessarily crude, vulgar, demeaning, obscene, profane and tasteless. Enough to make the movie a "must NOT see."

Beyond that, the lighting and mood is noir, most of the characters are self-centered, rude and arrogant, and their come-uppance, if it ever comes, is only briefly implied. For a morality play, 'Rick' certainly lacks morals.

Don't let the presence of Bill Pullman (Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, Singles) fool you; this is no breezy romcom. Not by a mile.

Based on a famous opera (in case you don't already know which one, I won't tell you because that might ruin the story), it's a pretty clever modernization. It begins innocently enough like a good dark comedy, but almost immediately you start to pick up cues that the director is trying to unsettle us. Scenes of New York City are shot from low, wide angles creating a claustrophobic effect. Most of the story seems to happen at night in shady places or in the dark, ominous halls of the sleazebag corporation where Rick works. All of this offsets the comedy which is rife in the first half.

But if you're expecting a comic morality tale like "Scrooged" or "Groundhog Day" or even "A Christmas Carol", you'll be in for a few surprises. First of all, the choice of leading actor Bill Pullman is a puzzler. We're supposed to hate him, right? How can we possibly hate the eternal good guy "Walter from Sleepless in Seattle"? The answer is we can't. And I believe this casting choice was intentional. In the DVD extras the filmmakers say it's much more complicated than bad-guy-takes-his-lumps. Instead they create a complex protagonist who is evil but not without just cause. This complicates matters as we become sympathetic toward him. The experience can be very emotionally draining, but that's why I think this is a good film.

An outstanding performance from Agnes Bruckner as the daughter, as well as great supporting roles from everyone involved, keep things moving at a somewhat fast pace. You barely have time to notice the great architecture and powerful sets featured in the film, not to mention all the literary allusions and little winks at the audience (for example, notice how the phone number on Buck's business card keeps changing).

As far as creative retellings of classic stories go, "Rick" is a winner. Other good ones include "The Claim" (a wild west adaptation of the Byron poem "Ozymandias"), "Dolan's Cadillac" (based on Stephen King's rewrite of Poe's "Cask of Amontillado") and--a bit of a stretch but--"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", a kick-butt retelling of Moby Dick.

I saw "Rick" yesterday at Anthology, and it keeps playing in my head. Based on Verdi's "Rigoletto, the film is not afraid to mix both dark humor and tragedy. "Rick" manages to satire the corporate world and its self-centered "Masters of the Universe" types, while still keeping true to the gut level truth of tragedy's inevitable demand for its "pound of flesh."

'Rick' takes us inside a rather claustrophobic world of boardrooms and offices, where sex is played over computer chat rooms or under mahogany desks. It's Christmas time, but the emphasis here is on 'taking' all that you can get.

Pullman and Stanford are loathsome yet vulnerable pawns in this game of fate. They get what they deserve. Standouts are young Agnes Bruckner as Eve and especially effective is Sandra Oh's terrific bar scene. Definitely worth seeing. I may never look at my Dylan albums the same.

Rick, well received at the SXSW festival this year, is a faithful modernization of Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 tragic opera "Rigoletto," which was also a reworking of Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse." I did not realize this until the Q & A period following the film, and it made all the difference.

Without the tie to the opera, the film will be judged too much on the curse of believability, and that is a shame.

The trio of Pullman, Aaron Stanford as Duke a.k.a. Bigboss, and especially Agnes Bruckner pull off strong performances.

The dark moods and sound of the film are terrific, and the use of anonymous Internet sex chat to set up the relationship between Rick's boss and his daughter Eve (Agnes Bruckner) works well.

Rick does have some difficulties. The crucial misfire is an absurd plot contrivance used to set up a mistaken identity.

Director Curtiss Clayton has had difficulty distributing this film that has everything going against it in today's market - Pullman's unlikable main character Rick O'Lette, lack of a happy ending, and if Clayton mentions Rigoletto as the basis of the film, he is met with blank stares. Hopefully, he'll run into one opera-savvy distributor and get Rick beyond the film festivals, at least into the art houses.

8.5/10

Other's have given good synopses of the plot so I'll not go along that route, and I'll keep this brief. One other commenter noted the quality of Bill Pullman and I have to concur. He has a habit of choosing rather off-beat films that deserve greater success than they receive; I'm thinking of The Zero Effect and Lost Highway rather than Independence Day.

I was expecting very little from this film and was awed by the quality of the production. Rick managed to build its own style as a film, being grotesque and dramatic, yet the moniker of DARK COMEDY was not a lie on the sleeve, it really was very funny.

Thankfully the film only follows the same general route as the opera. Guiseppe Verdi (sounds so dull when you translate it to English - Joe Green) never wrote for the screen. Yet... the production retains a very set-like feel, as if it was taken from a play.

The only criticism that I can really level at Rick is that it seems to lose its pacing in the last 15 minutes, when you can see the slow car-crash of a finale approaching. The director really passes up opportunities to build suspense and there is a feeling of an opportunity lost. However, this stands out only due to the quality overall.

In summary, it's got really superb characters, none of them are out of the box at all. Gothic and fatalistic, funny and sexy but cruel and merciless. The acting is faultless, stand-out performances from Bill Pullman and Sandra Oh, with a special mention for one of the most cringe-worthy bosses of all time to Aaron Stanford - watch out for him in the future.

Just my mistake ..Sam Rockwell is not in movie sorry

Josh Casaubon who plays the handsome executive should have played the role of the boss. He is a much more convincing actor. Other than that I think the movie is great. However it is somewhat predictable towards the end. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes a dark comedy. Also the girl who plays Bill Pullmans daughter is really good actress and very attractive, I'm going to try to find all the movies she is in. Like I said before Josh Casaubon who plays the handsome executive is a great actor("Looking good today, you been working out") he does a lot of plays around the New York City area. I recommend checking him out if you get a chance, and if you don't get a chance than you should make one. Hes that good

Amazing this movie is so hard to find .. if you search Bill Pullman or Sam Rockwell ... nothing comes up..It gives you a peak into how great Sam Rockwell is at his craft .. .. before he was well known ..Pullman is also very solid .. Sandra Oh has a small part but steals her scenes..

It is surprising that an indie film was able to attract the talent of such talented actors, designers and crew, but over looked a critical element which is the film score. The music composed and arranged for this film was a very amateur work. So much so that it pulled you out of the story each time the poorly done music was played. You have to fight to not listen to it, so that you can keep your head in the story and action of the film. This is not the purpose of film music, it needs to work with the film, not against it.

The art direction was right on, as was the location shots of the film including the offices and the apartment. It is too bad that this wasn't done with a composer of the talents equal to the rest of the level of this film.