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| Directed by Hampton Fancher; Starring Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, Brian Cox, Mercedes Ruehl, Dwight Yoakam, Dennis Haysbert, Eric Mabius, Larry Miller, Lois Gerace, Sheryl Crow, and Alex Warren |
Films do not get much more intriguing than The Minus Man. Its subtle performances, underhanded direction, and ambiguous script shine brighter than 90% of the films I’ve seen this year. The taglines for the film are “Conversation usually follows” and “It’ll have you talking for hours,” and nothing could be more true. The fact of the matter is that four days after seeing the film, the person I saw it with and I are still talking about the film.
First of all I would like to congratulate Artisan and director Hampton Fancher for producing the perfect theatrical trailer for this film. Not one image from the trailer is shown in the actual film, meaning no scene is given away and the trailer itself on its own is an eye-popping short film. It follows a couple as they leave the theatre after seeing The Minus Man and talk about it for hours, up until dawn in which the woman happens to remember a rather important engagement. That is film artistry and it did not tell me anything beside the title and who was in it (though I would have seen it simply because of Brian Cox).
Now onto the film itself. The Minus Man is about a young serial killer named Vann (Wilson) who drives around drifting into towns and killing people in the least gruesome way imaginable. The film begins with him picking up a drug addict (Crow) in a bar and taking her for a ride. At a rest stop she happens to take a drink of some alcohol lined with poison, and Vann simply gets to make it look like a cocaine overdose. After this he comes upon a small town where he is forced by a police officer (Warren) to find a place to stay. He decides to rent out a room from a couple going through troubled times as their daughter has left home for college. The husband Doug (Cox) is a post office worker who gets Vann a position there, where Vann finds himself the object of the desires of fellow worker Ferrin (Garofalo). The film looks at what goes through the mind of the narrating Vann as he attempts to deal with all these people in his life as well as the impending closeness of the police on his tail.
Wilson sells the character, giving a compassionate performance and making Vann one of the most likable serial killers since Anthony Hopkins admitted an affinity towards “fava beans and a nice chianti.” The rest of the cast also gives remarkable performances, especially the always enjoyable Cox. Hampton Fancher has produced a script that works as if Ted Tally had written it (my favorite musing is when Vann questions the room’s separate access). Fancher (best known for writing Blade Runner) makes a very good first try at direction, giving the film the edge that Stir of Echoes lacked. My only real problem with the film is that it seems to run a little long, overdoing some scenes a bit. Still how can I hold something like that against a film with such a great ending?
