City of Ghosts
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Movie Reviews of City of Ghosts
Movie Review: Reminded me of Flesh and Bone
Summary: 4 Stars
Another movie where James Caan plays an evil elder in the borderless world of career criminals that made me absolutely believe that this kind of hopelessness and violence and danger could and does happen.Movie Review: Matt Dillon explores Cambodia's darker corners
Summary: 3 Stars
An uneasy, yet intriguing, brew of Joseph Conrad, Mario Puzo and Raymond Chandler, "City of Ghosts" is Matt Dillon's entrance into directing, and it fits him well, even if the movie flew far under the radar upon its release. Mossy with atmosphere, the story of three con men in Cambodia is overstuffed at two hours, yet the central theme of American crime vs. third world corruption - the attraction of the two to each other, and their eventual incompatibility - emerges fiercely in Dillon and Barry Gifford's co-written script."City of Ghosts" opens with an insurance scam. A hurricane belts the East Coast, and thousands of policyholders are left stranded by a phony company that sucked up their premiums and then laundered the money. At first it seems Jimmy (Dillon) was a fall guy hired by a shadow CEO: He presents a viable cover story to the FBI, which the feds buy.
A day later he's headed to Southeast Asia to locate Marvin (James Caan), the CEO, who's working a new deal to build a casino in Cambodia, recently liberated after the reign of Pol Pot. Marvin's new partner, Casper (Stellan Skarsgard, Hollywood's resident shady fellow) is working his own angle with a few of Marvin's former marks.
Although the table is set for a quick-n-dirty foreign thriller of double crosses and exoticism, Dillon spins the material against its natural bent and toward film noir. Upon Jimmy's arrival in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, Dillon is intent on getting us comfortable with the surroundings; some of it works - the brothel scene is oddly alluring - and some of it reeks of prestige padding. Gerard Depardieu has a large role as a crooked motel owner that's colorful but unrelated to the central story. Natascha McElhone is Jimmy's half-hearted love interest, an art scholar of Cambodia's ancient ruins. There is a local bike porter (Kem Sereyvuth), two petty thieves, an Oddjob hitman, three Russians, a monkey, two more art hippies and a retired general from the Pol Pot regime playing both sides of the casino development scheme.
Caan, second billing behind Dillon, has a rather small role as the goofily detached Marvin, who seems less a criminal mastermind than a creep out the wild, playing head games. A sudden event midway through "City of Ghosts" accounts for the character's relative absence from the picture, but Dillon never finds the approach to paint Marvin as the Kurtz-like figure he'd so much like him to be; introducing Caan to the picture in long shot, dancing with girls, isn't exactly effective for Marvin's mystery.
Yet there is enough to recommend. I like Skarsgard's performance - what suspense there is, he creates by just seeming worried - and Dillon, as usual, fits believably inside his character, in this case the tough-but-not-so-wiseguy. There is an authentic brutality to the picture - kidnappings, innocent victims, offhand violence - that Dillon has visited throughout his career as an actor. The crackerjack plot lacks a little snap, but an ominous languor fills the void. Lush, but mindful of the singe of murder still in the air. Cambodia has earned its rough beauty.
Movie Review: Highly atmospheric but somewhat meandering
Summary: 3 Stars
Matt Dillon's directorial debut is one of those films whose strengths are also its weaknesses. It's atmospheric with a fairly vivid sense of place - the parts of Cambodia that need a paint job, where Dillon's insurance fraudster has come to collect his cut of a Ponzi scheme that's just been blown away by a hurricane - and the human flotsam and jetsam that wind up there (many played by local residents rather than professional actors). At times the atmosphere is almost like a modern-day Joseph Conrad tale rather than the David Lynch films co-writer Barry Gifford is perhaps better known for. But this takes precedence over the plot, the concise plotting of the early scenes giving way to local colour and eccentrics as his boss, James Caan, and fellow conman Stellan Skarsgard, fall foul of some very bad people who also have Dillon in their sights. Despite starting out like one of those south of the border Robert Mitchum RKO thrillers of the 40s and 50s, there's a determinedly 70s indie vibe reminiscent more of Bogdanovich's Saint Jack rather than Cassevettes, albeit with a better budget, but while it constantly holds the interest it doesn't really grip. Instead the attraction is more like slumming it in a bad neighborhood with all sense of personal threat removed.
Still, Gerard Depardieu is great fun as a bar/hotel owner playing Jacques Dutronc songs or trying to persuade his pet python to seek out and eat a pilfering monkey ("Here Olly-ver! Olly-ver! The monkee! Monkee!"), the relationship with Kem Sereyvuth's cyclo driver is nicely developed and refreshingly non-patronising, it's nice to see Bo Hopkins again even in a blink-and-you'll miss it cameo and it's probably your only chance to see Caan dancing in a sarong or drunkenly singing karaoke in Khmer.
Movie Review: The exotic locales and its director make it worth watching..
Summary: 3 Stars
With CITY OF GHOSTS, actor Matt Dillon makes his directorial debut and, before this, I almost forgot how much I actually could like the guy. Other than THERE"S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and his supporting role in DEUCES WILD I feel like I haven't seen Dillon all that much. CITY OF GHOST S made me actually want to see more of him. He's a talented actor and it really should come as no surprise that he eventually wound up behind the camera after working with such directors as Francis Ford Copolla (THE OUTSIDERS) and Gus Van Sant (DRUGSTORE COWBOY).The film follows Jimmy (Dillon), an amoral insurance scam artist who, when the FBI shows up asking questions, hightails it to Cambodia to hunt for his supervisor, Marvin (James Caan), who may also be his legitimate father.
It isn't the story of CITY OF GHOSTS that is remarkable though. It's not that there's anything wrong with the story but, all in all, the film's story is somewhat predictable. Aside from the exotic locales the film doesn't really break any new ground. What is remarkable is Dillon's talent in the director's chair and his ability to capture the picturesque beauty of the film's foreign locales (the film was really shot in Cambodia). That's what makes it such a pleasure to watch. You really feel as if Dillon's character is a stranger in a strange land because he as an actor really is and that keeps you involved with the story throughout, even if the film could have benefited from being trimmed down a good twenty minutes or so shorter.
CITY OF GHOSTS also stars Gerard Depardieu (THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK; 1492), Rose Byrne (TWO HANDS; TROY), Natasha McElehone (THE DEVIL'S OWN; SOLARIS), and Stellan Skarsgaard (RONIN; DEEP BLUE SEA).
C
Movie Review: Had the Right Potential, Just Missing that Extra Something
Summary: 3 Stars
The cinematography was absolutely stunning and the detail Matt Dillon puts into absorbing the culutre around him is fantastic. I have family from neighboring countries in South East Asia, and it's refreshing to know that Cambodia's beliefs and customs are similar to our own. Matt Dillon captured that very well in this film, and listening to the commentary, you can tell he went through great expense to ensure all the cultural and religious details were right and consistent.However, he seemed to have left his plot hanging loosely in the wind. The approach to the story was good, using sort of a Joseph Conrad view of things: hearing the testimonies of the other characters that point clues towards his boss's whereabouts and boss's intentions. A light tribute to the Heart of Darkness. But then his character gets distracted along the way by events, etc., then boom the truth comes out. What might have helped this become a more poignat film is if James Caan's chracter remained a bit more of a mystery much the way Marlon Brando's character did in Apocalypse Now. In this movie, the audience is privvy to information about James Caan's whereabouts and secret dealings that Matt Dillon has know knowledge of. In other words, the point of view of the story changes in midstream. At first we're seeing things through the eyes of Matt Dillon, then suddenly we are seeing everything going on in the movie. Not very consistent and certainly threw off the rhythm of the film.
Overall, a decent flick with wonderful imagery and a great international cast.