Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man isn't the director's best, but it's worth a looky-loo just to see this solid cast cavort around in a sweltering Georgia atmosphere and play out a narrative that's part sultry seduction thriller and part hard boiled whodunit. I remember watching it and going 'meh, I've seen this type of thing a thousand times and this one didn't raise the bar at all.' I'm thinking now that perhaps my mindset was in the wrong space, and that Altman set out to simply bring us the romantic murder mystery in its purest form, without deviation or higher ambitions. In that case he's made a neat little potboiler with a suitably ludicrous ending, some truly effective red herrings and a really great troupe of actors, so,e going nicely against type. The multi-talented Kenneth Branagh plays suave Georgia lawyer Rick MacGruder, who finds himself in deep trouble when he has an affair with sexy, slinky and shady Mallory Doss (the very underrated Embeth Davidz). She's a good enough girl, but she has a backwoods nutcase of a father named Dixon (Robert Duvall being uber strange and loving every second of it) who is stalking and threatening her. Dixon is a bedraggled, cult-leading swamp rat and Duvall plays him to the frenzied hilt of uncomfortable ticks and unkempt theatrics. MacGruder, being smitten with Mallory, is of course compelled to use his legal and personal power to help her, and concocts a convoluted scheme involving a subpoena to Mallory's belligerent ex husband Pete Randle (a cranky Tom Berenger blusters about in the third act). This of course sets off all kinds of back door motivations and sweaty double crosses that are hard to keep track of until all is revealed in the final act, prompting a collective audience reaction of "huh??". It's all in good fun though and at times it seems like Altman is deliberately dipping into B movie territory just to shirk his high art mantle and spice up this gumbo with some trashy, lowbrow flavour. I say bring it, that's exactly the way to my heart. Writing this review I'm now realizing I probably like this film way more than my ending statement might suggest, but sometimes we need to hash it all out on paper (or in this case a cramped iPad keyboard) to reevaluate our perception of a certain piece. The cast gets juicier, with Robert Downey Jr. doing a quick bit as Macgruder's slick buddy who works as a private investigator for the law office, Daryl Hannah and Famke Janssen as Rick's jilted wife as well. It's based on a John Grisham novel, and Altman seems to be the first director to adapt his work with a ramped up style and personal flair that goes beyond the academic thrills on the page. This one feels heightened, sultry and oh so sweaty in the way that only a southern set thriller can be. Cool stuff.

Being that this was an Altman and it was Grisham related, I thought, why not? Well, I'm glad I watched it because I finally got to see one of Altman's and Grisham's mulligans/duds. This story never should have been put out. So many great actors on a really non-thriller like "dumb" story.Branagh was pretty good, Duvall was wasted and Downey, well his role was so stereotyped, with the seriously fake southern accent. This was one painfully bad watch.*Spoilers why does the poor put upon girl pick the Branagh character to do the deed? There's no mention of why she picked him. No reason/back story.What was the symbolism of the ashtray or glass she stole in the beginning? I mean she shows it in the car ride home and then it just disappears. Why even bother to show this if it's meaningless? Why did no-one check out that the girl wasn't really divorced from her husband? I mean don't you do background checks on all your clients? Why would anyone take a plea deal at the end of this to be dis-barred with community service when it was so clear he was framed into doing what he did?. He could have easily beat this in the courts.This entire story came down to trees, and this girl and her so called "ex" husband wanted em. $15 million dollars worth and we get a really dull watch. This story really needed less characters and a more detailed story. Wow this was a dud.

The film version of John Grisham's The Gingerbread Man is an entertaining thriller that is tight, visceral and never stops to take a breath. This has to be one of the tightest scripts ever written; so tight that the ending is too abrupt. That would be a problem if not for the way director Robert Altman paces the film so nicely that we don't have time to react to what is being shown on screen before something else sinister and important occurs.All across the board, the acting is quite terrific with Brit Kenneth Branagh giving a strong performance as Georgia attorney Rick Macgruder, who falls for mysterious woman Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz), and ends up mired in her dark and convoluted family involving her ex-husband (Tom Berenger) and crazed father (Robert Duvall). All this combined with Rick's divorce and attempt to father his two children leads to conventional endings but I still was utterly involved and entertained by all that happened in this movie.At it's highest level, The Gingerbread Man can work only as a stylish law drama and it does exactly that very well. Branagh and Davidtz are very good together and Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant as a womanizing, alcoholic private eye who has little to do but does it very well. This is the most un-Altman of all of his films yet he makes it work with his constant moving camera and zooms and by sticking to the script and keeping the character's quirks and idiosyncrasies to a minimum, I have to admit I really enjoyed this movie even though I know deep down that it is only a mildly entertaining film with nothing else to it. Still, sometimes it's a good reminder to know why movies are so popular after all these years.

Kenneth Branagh plays a rascal, a hypocritical scoundrel,a villain,a bad lot &low fellow.Embeth Davidtz's character is a bit of fluff.Often moderately and conventionally atmospheric, the film has also a moralist intention and aim,a moralist, moralizing, ironic, quizzer, chaffer, biting, sarcastic side, with accents of satire--all of these, alternatively, also with fluid transitions.Yet the characters are mere puppets, which is bad in a moralist work--i.e.,a work that sets itself up for a moral study, for a study of manners.This ample defect undermines the entire film, it is a major flaw.The movie is, therefore, never complete or entire--and still for another reason or lack as well--it lacks the dramatic dimension, the labyrinthine itinerary, and it sadly reminds things like Mike Figgis' Cold Creek Manor (2003) or as cheap as Phil Joanou's Final Analysis (1992).A straight thriller like Peter Hyams' Narrow Margin (1990)(--with Gene Hackman,the delicious humid Anne Archer,M. Emmet Walsh,etc.) was ten times better and much more chilling.The story is trite, and the handling is hackneyed and tarnished. Which results in the movie being cheap, phony, schmaltz, a trite surrogate.(Hammer time:once B. Barbera spoke about the fake things, the fake legends in music--like U2 and Doors; the same might be said, for the cinema ,about directors like Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah.Or, to complete here, and quote myself a bit from an earlier review—also phony prestige directors like Lynch, Burton, the Coens, Soderbergh, maybe Shyamalan, Scorsese, the very phony idols of a fastidious emptiness.But maybe I will recant these stances someday.)Now to positive elements (that The Gingerbread Man (1998) completely lacks):a mystery thriller ought to be a maze, labyrinthine, sinuous, circuitous, like The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Touch of Evil (1958) ; like Don Siegel's adaptation of Israel Zangwill's novel "The Big Bow Mystery"--fortunately never adapted again since '46!;and like "Vertigo";like Jean Delannoy's Maigret movies,like Dario Argento's '70s movies,like David Wickes' Jack the Ripper (1988),or like François Truffaut's Mississippi Mermaid .