05/04/2012: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind [2002]

Chuck Barris was a well known television producer in the 1960's and 70's. Creator of numerous game shows, such as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show, Barris was big in the industry. However in 1984, Chuck Barris published his autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in which he claimed to be an assassin for the CIA as well as a television producer. George Clooney, taking his first shot at directing, leaves it up to you to decide, as did Chuck Barris himself.




I actually started watching Confessions of a Dangerous Mind thinking it was a gangster movie. While this was largely wrong, I like the idea of watching a movie with little idea of what it's about and what will happen. These days it's so hard not to have everything spoiled by the time you get to the movie. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, is George Clooney's directorial debut, and while he couldn't resist giving himself a great part in it he also did a great job at directing.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is based on Chuck Barris's autobiography of the same name, in which the television producer claimed to be a CIA assassin. Now, while the movie opens with a statement about the film being taken from Barris' journals, interviews, and public records. So while it is established that it is a "true story", unless one knows the story previously, Clooney gave no noticeable indication that Barris' claim to work for the CIA was anything but true. While in real life the CIA claims Barris' claims false, and Barris himself is ambiguous about it, the movie itself takes everything for truth, and it makes for a great story.

Things get just a little crazy.

 CoaDM is an interesting mix of genres, which was clearly demonstrated in an article on The Onion (link below), which claims the movie was marketed as six-different genres.  Everything from a romantic comedy, a spy thriller, a Hollywood satire, a straightforward biopic, and a strange, Being John Malkovich-esque mind-bender, to a chick flick. As to whether it actually fit into these genres, well...

CoaDM, could be called a romantic movie, Drew Barrymore, and Julia Roberts characters both fight for Chucks attentions, and the love triangle gets complicated. As a spy thriller, CoaDM fits the bill, featuring cold-war assassinations in Berlin, Helsinki and Mexico. As a Hollywood satire, it easily fits in, with its combination of game show television and murder. A straightforward biopic is exactly how Clooney plays it, telling Chuck Barris' biography straight no matter how crazy it gets. It is exactly that craziness that let it fall into the last genre as well,a strange, Being John Malkovich-esque mind-bender, (on my watchlist) and this combination is what makes it so good.

Just a warning that CoaDM contains a lot of footage of Rockwell's ass, not so much of Barrymore's.

Of course, with that great of a story, the wrong cast, set or direction could still have tanked the movie. The role of Chuck Barris was made for Sam Rockwell however, (not in the he played it that well sense but litterally) and he does an amazing job, creating a great character. Drew Barrymore is someone who I always think of as an actress in romantic comedies. However, like her role in Donnie Darko, Barrymore shows she can play the serious movie roles just as great. A surprisingly large part of the Ocean's 11 gang showed up to help Clooney out, including Julia Roberts playing the a spy, as well as cameos from Bradd Pitt, and Matt Damon, (whom I missed).

While money on the movie was a little tight, both Barrymore and Roberts took pay cuts as a favour and Pitt and Damon cameo'd for free, so Clooney could get his movie made. One of the coolest things about CoaDM is the style in which it's filmed. Most scenes feature mostly dark colours, sometimes all grey with one bright colourful object, such as a car to create a great visual contrast.

So, when you get to the end of the almost 2 hour long movie, (which passed slowly, but perfectly) you are not necessarily left with any questions. However if you look a little bit into the true story on which it's based on you will realize that, possibly all of the CIA assassin parts were lies. It is also important to note the movie is not all Barris assassinating people. It is primarily about his everyday life as a T.V. producer, which you will learn much about. Either way, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind turned out to be a great movie, and possibly a new favourite of mine.

Links:
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Imdb
The Onion News Network Article