Summary: Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) invents game shows while becoming a hit-man for the CIA.
Some people don't like Charlie Kauffman's screen writing, but I take infinite delight in the way his mind twists in and around an idea to arrive at a story with all twists intact. Not "plot twists," but the actual twisting of reality as depicted on-screen to replicate the inner workings of the people and situations being shown.
In real life, Chuck Barris created The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, created and hosted The Gong Show, and then went off by himself to write a book claiming to be a CIA hit-man. How can such a story be true? And why should such a story matter? Barris has a pretty interesting tale to tell without the insane window-dressing, and the window-dressing carries the danger of turning the whole thing into a freak show.
As in ADAPTATION, Kauffman gives us a story about writing a story. In that movie, the story is in progress, and the parallel twistsseeing the story being written as it unfolds, and as thoughts about it are depicted as realare a work in progress as well. ADAPTATION is disjointed because the story isn't done yet. In CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, we are seeing a story that has already been written, the narrative has been chosen, and the narrative is insane. Thus, the narrative unfolds in a fairly conventional way, taking its own twists in stride. The construction is such that we can see the movie as a standard, if strange, biopic, OR we can see it as parallel storiesBarris's life and his internal fantasies about being a hit-man, told side-by-side. The brilliance is that there's nothing in the hit-man side of the story that has to be believed; it is built exactly like a fantasy, but there is also nothing in it that has to be DISbelieved; it is simultaneously built like a depiction of reality.
The movie is very entertaining; Sam Rockwell carries the thing well. George Clooney is quite amusing as a deadpan CIA operative, and Julia Roberts is delightful as a really strange latter-day Mata Hari. It's plain IL' fun to watch. At the same time, there's all this behind-the-screen madness unfolding, and it completely tickles my fancy.
Some people don't like Charlie Kauffman's screen writing, but I take infinite delight in the way his mind twists in and around an idea to arrive at a story with all twists intact. Not "plot twists," but the actual twisting of reality as depicted on-screen to replicate the inner workings of the people and situations being shown.
In real life, Chuck Barris created The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, created and hosted The Gong Show, and then went off by himself to write a book claiming to be a CIA hit-man. How can such a story be true? And why should such a story matter? Barris has a pretty interesting tale to tell without the insane window-dressing, and the window-dressing carries the danger of turning the whole thing into a freak show.
As in ADAPTATION, Kauffman gives us a story about writing a story. In that movie, the story is in progress, and the parallel twistsseeing the story being written as it unfolds, and as thoughts about it are depicted as realare a work in progress as well. ADAPTATION is disjointed because the story isn't done yet. In CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, we are seeing a story that has already been written, the narrative has been chosen, and the narrative is insane. Thus, the narrative unfolds in a fairly conventional way, taking its own twists in stride. The construction is such that we can see the movie as a standard, if strange, biopic, OR we can see it as parallel storiesBarris's life and his internal fantasies about being a hit-man, told side-by-side. The brilliance is that there's nothing in the hit-man side of the story that has to be believed; it is built exactly like a fantasy, but there is also nothing in it that has to be DISbelieved; it is simultaneously built like a depiction of reality.
The movie is very entertaining; Sam Rockwell carries the thing well. George Clooney is quite amusing as a deadpan CIA operative, and Julia Roberts is delightful as a really strange latter-day Mata Hari. It's plain IL' fun to watch. At the same time, there's all this behind-the-screen madness unfolding, and it completely tickles my fancy.