CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
Released: December 31, 2002
How amazing that George Clooney could star in director Steven Soderbergh's remake of "Solaris" a mere month before Clooney makes his directorial debut in a Soderbergh co-produced venture - and Clooney's movie is so much more entertaining. Where "Solaris" was a movie about relationships set in a sci-fi outer space setting, "Confessions..." is more telling of the relationships people find themselves in. At the height of his late 60s/early 70s TV game show career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative. This is the story of the legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. Now, if any of this CIA assassin stuff is true, we'll never know. The real Chuck Barris is 77 years old and I suspect he'll be taking the truth to his grave. Regardless, we are in for an entertaining story. Sam Rockwell, probably best known for playing obnoxious Wild Bill Wharton the convicted rapist on death row in "The Green Mile" plus several chameleon-like support roles in "Galaxy Quest", "Charlie's Angels" and Heist", brings Barris to the screen convincingly. As someone who is old enough to have watched first run episodes of "The Gong Show" on TV, I can safely say Rockwell delivers the goods. There's enough stress in Barris' life at this point, trying to produce game shows under the pressure of ABC's heartless programmers. He is asked by a CIA operative Jim Byrd (Clooney) to become an assassin, which Barris somewhat but not totally reluctantly takes on. Rockwell is thrilling to watch as his life becomes consumed by making TV shows and killing people on the side. Again, if a true story, it's a great one. If not, it's still pretty good for us as movie watchers. You'll find many big names joining Rockwell and Clooney: Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Fred Savage and Maggie Gyllenhaal plus two quckie cameos by Clooney's buddies Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Partially shot in Montreal, this is a fine movie and more than confirms Clooney's talents as a director. He could have easily picked an easier story for a first film but went with a pretty meaty plot and made it out integrity intact. His acting role is also right up there with classic Clooney roles, playing the CIA contact man for Barris with sly gusto.
113 Minutes
Miramax/Buena Vista