 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Breakfast of Champions
TIFF [1999]
Nick Nolte
Directed by Alan Rudolph. Produced by David Blocker, David Willis, Sandra Tomita. Written by Alan Rudolph , based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Starring : Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte, Barbara Hershey, Glenne Headley, Lukas Haas
One of the movies at this year's TIFF that I really wanted to catch was Alan Rudolph's Breakfast of Champions, an adaptation of the famous Kurt Vonnegut Jr. novel that Rudolph has tried to bring to the screen for many years.
Being a huge Vonnegut fan since I was a teenager, I must admit I was a bit wary of this film. Aside from some bad buzz from Cannes earlier this year, my biggest fear was Rudolph's helming of the film. He's a director I've never been able to get into; I find his films a little too deliberately paced for my liking. I read "Breakfast of Champions" in just a little over two hours; the film is just a little under...
The story is, in the true Vonnegut tradition, quite loopy. Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis) owns a successful car dealership and is a local celebrity due to his outlandish TV commercials. Despite his success, Dwayne is clearly losing it: his wife Celia (Barbara Hershey) is a blissfully drugged-out TV addict; his son (Lukas Haas) has taken to calling himself "Bunny," living in a fallout shelter and performing a cheezy lounge act at the local hotel; his mistress Francine (Glenne Headley) is overbearingly cheery and is pressuring him into giving her money for a fried chicken franchise; and his sales manager Harry Le Sabre (Nick Nolte) is desperately trying to keep his cross-dressing a secret. Into this volatile mix falls down-and-out writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney), who has inexplicably been invited by the town's poobahs to be the guest of honor at their arts festival. Hoover's looking for answers to his life, and he just might find them if he can only meet Kilgore Trout...
If the plot sounds totally outlandish, it is. Despite Dwayne's desperate state, he's almost the sanest of the bunch; actually, he's a little too sane, and it's slowly destroying him.
Talk Back
All I can say about the film is that, while I wasn't totally satisfied with it -- Rudolph often falls into the old habits that I've always found difficult about his films -- I have to admire his tenacity and passion. It shows in just about every frame of this film that everyone was totally devoted to bringing this project to the screen. In fact, Willis basically did the film for free, donating his salary to fund the film. It's a hard story to adapt (almost all of Vonnegut's novels are -- Slaughterhouse Five wasn't exactly perfect either) and I must admit that scriptwise, Rudolph did a great job of adapting "Breakfast of Champions". The addition of garish, funky graphics was fun but I found that they popped up at the oddest times; I'm not even sure they were totally necessary. And the use of a strobe light during the climax really ruined a pivotal point in the story for me, diluting the action and rendering it practically incomprehensible.
On the plus side are the performances. Willis is fantastic as Hoover. He uses his usually-criticized smarminess to its fullest effect when Dwayne has to be "on" but often shows the cracks in Hoover's foundations with heartbreaking accuracy. Nolte is also fantastic. Sure, he's chewing the scenery, but the whole story is over-the-top, so why not go with it? Besides, he really got himself into shape for this one. Check out the tight little red number he sports! He's got great legs too!
In a nutshell, I'd recommend the film to fans of the book; I'm not sure someone who hasn't read it will be able to follow it. If you haven't read the book, just try to pay attention, you should be able to put it together.
Lidia F
Talk Back
Reviews: All the Rage
In the News:
 :
 |
Vote |
Movie Forum Site Home
Movie Message
Board Movie Chat
Rooms Movie Forum Site Map
