When it's a smart and funny look at the dark side of Hollywood, it's at its best. The numerous celebrity cameos, the sharp humour, and the in-jokes to other movies are all great and make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, that's not the whole film. The thriller aspect is completely ludicrous and only drags the movie down; add into that a rather boring romance, and you've got a film with a serious personality disorder. It never decides what it wants to be, so it decides to be everything, and it just doesn't work. The main cast is solid, and there is some exceptional dialogue, but the overall story is very, very weak. Altman's trademark style is on display in the first scene, and then appears scattered throughout, but large portions of the film are rather blandly directed. In fact, if the entire movie was like the first scene, I would have liked it a whole lot more.
Review of The Player
