 |
 |
| Directed by Robert Altman; Starring Glenn Close, Charles S. Dutton, Liv Tyler, Julianne Moore, Chris O’Donnel, Ned Beatty, Courtney B. Vance, Donald Moffat, Lyle Lovett, and Patricia Neal |
I guess I could be called one of the ultimate Robert Altman nay-sayers. When he does good stuff (The Player, M*A*S*H, Short Cuts) I praise him, but when he falters (Popeye, Ready to Wear, the Gun TV series) in the least bit I tend to lose almost all respect for him. Last year after seeing The Gingerbread Man, I called him “the most literal and uninteresting director to ever make a great film since Francis Ford Coppola.” And I even gave The Gingerbread Man a marginal recommendation. Then this year I saw McCabe and Mrs. Miller for the first time and he is suddenly the film genius that brought the world The Player again. If I could make up my mind on this guy, my life might be a little easier. The nice thing is that with Cookie’s Fortune, I may very well have come to a decision on the worth of Robert Altman.
Cookie’s Fortune is a fun, often hilarious film that has one of the best casts since L.A. Confidential. The film centers on what happens to a small Mississippi town when one of its residents, Cookie (Neal), commits suicide. The death would not come to be such a shock to the township if it was not for the conniving niece of hers that tries to make it look like a robbery and murder. The niece is played by Close, in her most deliciously evil performance yet. With a murder on his hands the chief of police (Beatty) must arrest Cookie’s best friend (Dutton) for the murder. The rest of the cast include Moore as the slow sister to Close, Tyler as Moore’s daughter that has tried to free herself from the family, and O’Donnel as the young police officer infatuated with Tyler.
The entire cast is terrific, even O’Donnel. It is such a treat to see Neal of Hud fame back at work (reminds me of the appearance of Teresa Wright in The Rainmaker). Probably the best character in the film is Ned Beatty’s police chief. His comical anger over “a-we” is the funniest bit of the entire film. Altman’s direction (from Anne Rapp’s script) is better than anything he has done since Short Cuts in 1993. In my opinion, Cookie’s Fortune would probably stand as one of Altman’s seven or eight best films. A true treat from beginning to end.
