Review of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) by Kenneth L — 06 Jun 2010

Above all, this movie is a real visual treat. George Clooney, who directed, mentions on the special features on the DVD that he spent 4 months storyboarding every shot in the movie, and you can tell. He gets away with some truly astonishing long takes, and many of the shots are beautifully composed.

The cinematography is some of the best I've ever seen, really. It alternates between bright, bubblegum colors and dark film-noir shadows with the greatest of ease. The movie makes good use of period music.

The whole thing is just dripping with style. And then it has a pretty good story, too. It is based on the autobiography of Chuck Barris, who definitely created some famous TV shows such as The Dating Game, and may or may not have moonlighted as an assassin fo the CIA.

Sam Rockwell, that amazing character actor, gives a really excellent performance as Barris. Drew Barrymore is decent as his perky girlfriend. George Clooney gives himself an amusing part as the CIA agent who recruits Barris, and Julia Roberts gets to play a full-on film-noir femme fatale.

There are also a couple of very amusing cameos from Brad Pitt and Matt Damon in here. The story spans about 25 years of Barris's life, from the beginning of his career in television until 1981. The excellent art direction and costumes recreate lots of detail from those years.

I only have a couple of minor quibbles: the characters all look pretty much the same in 1961 as they do in 1981, and the story lacks structure somewhat. Then again, it's not really fair to demand classical structure, since the movie is telling the more-or-less true story of one guy's life.

Some might complain about the film's plot movement, but on a shot-to-shot basis, this is a thoroughly excellent movie and George Clooney really did a great job with his directorial debut.