Review of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) by Tim H — 10 Sep 2008

Chuck Barris, eccentric and flamboyant host of "The Dating Game" and "The Gong Show", can be credited as the innovator of what we now call reality television. "The Gong Show", for instance, completely exploited the general public's willingness to make fools out of themselves just for 15 minutes of fame. At one point in the film "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", a newspaper headline dubs Chuck Barris the "decline of modern civilization". It's no wonder that Barris has created these delusional (yes, I believe they're delusions...), i'm sure he believes he's as worthless as the rest of the world is. And right there is a great film. A film about a man who has created a game show in a desperate cry for attention, exploiting himself along with the contestants... however, unfortunately, there's so many other things that get in the way. And i'm not just talking about the CIA junk.

In Barris' unauthorized biography, he claims to have killed 33 different people for the government. It was the perfect cover. While he's taking his contestants out on their awkward and miserable dates in surprisingly un-exotic locations, Barris can do some killing here and there. Right. The plot of the film is absurd, but it's a compelling one. My problem with the film is that Clooney, in his directorial debut, doesn't seem to know how to handle the material. It's all over the place. One moment you'll be laughing at the over-the-top absurdity of the FCC guy screaming about censorship and using appropriate language on "The Dating Game", and the next you get incredibly morbid scenes where Barris pictures his audience brutally murdered. I don't like a film that tells me how I should feel, but i'm not particularly impressed by films that seem to do whatever they can to keep you uninvolved and distant. What could be a really compelling and sympathetic character in Chuck Barris turns into nothing more than a caricature.

But the film isn't all bad. Hell, it's not even close to bad. The CIA scenes surprisingly work in a way that i'd argue is better than how they were handled in "A Beautiful Mind". While they bogged down that film, here I very much enjoyed he fact that we were never told whether they were illusions or not and how they'd randomly appear throughout the movie. When Barris leaves a woman at a booth after he see's the seductive legs of Patricia (Julia Roberts), we understand that he needs them - they don't need him. The scenes where Barris has to commit a murder don't come off as bad film noir (which really they are), rather a personal exploration into the psyche of Barris and discovering the lengths he'll go to just to give himself some sense of purpose.

Sam Rockwell seems to be stuck in supporting roles in everything he's appeared in, but he's good as a lead in this film. His character was never completely unlikable and his actions always made sense, no matter how absurd they were. The only thing that I found tedious about the character was the obnoxious voice over that completely bogs down the film. It's done in that hush "I have a bad cold" tone that seems to simply be trying too desperately to get intimate moments with the character. I also wasn't fond of the absurdly out-of-place "artsy" scenes of Barris standing naked in his living room watching TV... scenes like that just came off as trying way too hard.

In his directorial debut, George Clooney is solid although he seems to get a bit overboard in glamorizing his film. His use of color is distracting - from the incredibly bright and cliched glows of the game shows to the unappealing high contrast shots of the "real people" discussing the life of Barris. Clooney has worked with great directors and it seems as though he tries to pay homage to all of them... and in the end, all he has is a big mess.

While this has been an overwhelmingly negative review, I would recommend the film. The subject matter is strange, but it's nowhere near as surreal and absurd as some of Kaufman's other scripts, and the acting is very solid all around. My major problem with the film was just that it didn't know what to be. There'll be a gag one moment and then a slaughter the next. It's completely all over the place, and although some may excuse the large shifts in tone because of Barris' dual personality, I don't find any reason for a film to distance itself from the audience quite this much. This is a decent film with a breakthrough performance from Sam Rockwell, but sadly the rest of it is rather underwhelming.