This film is directorial masturbation at its best. Matt Dillon may be a good director, and he definitely is an excellent actor, but he shouldn't try to be both at once. We were taught this in the first week of film school. It is next to impossible to objectively direct a film if you are staring in it. As an actor, you develop too personal of a relationship with the character. This relationship conflicts with the director's role. The director is meant to chisel the character into a sharper version of the acted model. This is where Matt Dillon fails.
You can tell that he has fallen in love with his own scenes. This film could have easily been 30 minutes shorter than it was. The repetition in some scenes was unbearable. Let's also talk about the contrived love scene that was thrown in just so that the lead character could get some action. I think that the goal was to have a 'The Usual Suspects' type of plot- a plot that is full of questions and expectations. This might have worked except for the fact that the film is so long winded that it is easy to forget your question by the time the answer arrives.
The plot is basically that of a New York insurance broker who flies to Cambodia to escape a scandal that is rocking North America. In Cambodia, Dillon's character, Jimmy, tries to find his former business partner, and insinuated father portrayed by James Caan. I don't really know what the plot of this film is or what the main theme was intended to be. This is not a good sign. I know that there are a lot of corpses shown. I know that the story was not developed in the proper areas to exact an emotional response from the audience.
Lack of focus is the main weakness of this film. There are too many sub plots. There's the insurance scam, the father-son controversy, the love story, the Russians, the traitor, the archeologists, the casino. The list goes on and on. How are we to enjoy a film with so many events going on?
Perhaps the greatest strength of this film is the relationship built between Jimmy and his Cambodian friend. Although I liked this relationship, it seems to me that this trend of 'white man befriending local man to succeed' is getting overused.
You can tell that he has fallen in love with his own scenes. This film could have easily been 30 minutes shorter than it was. The repetition in some scenes was unbearable. Let's also talk about the contrived love scene that was thrown in just so that the lead character could get some action. I think that the goal was to have a 'The Usual Suspects' type of plot- a plot that is full of questions and expectations. This might have worked except for the fact that the film is so long winded that it is easy to forget your question by the time the answer arrives.
The plot is basically that of a New York insurance broker who flies to Cambodia to escape a scandal that is rocking North America. In Cambodia, Dillon's character, Jimmy, tries to find his former business partner, and insinuated father portrayed by James Caan. I don't really know what the plot of this film is or what the main theme was intended to be. This is not a good sign. I know that there are a lot of corpses shown. I know that the story was not developed in the proper areas to exact an emotional response from the audience.
Lack of focus is the main weakness of this film. There are too many sub plots. There's the insurance scam, the father-son controversy, the love story, the Russians, the traitor, the archeologists, the casino. The list goes on and on. How are we to enjoy a film with so many events going on?
Perhaps the greatest strength of this film is the relationship built between Jimmy and his Cambodian friend. Although I liked this relationship, it seems to me that this trend of 'white man befriending local man to succeed' is getting overused.