William Boyd adapts his own novel, Stars and Bars. Boyd has form in the fish out of water comedy as he made a television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop in the mid 1980s.This is probably the last film by Daniel Day-Lewis before he broke out as an Actor with a capital A. He plays an art dealer Henderson who has newly arrived in New York. Henderson is a repressed stiff upper lipped Englishman who wants to break out and let loose in New York. Maybe just like the real DDL who was stuck playing either priggish English toffs (more akin to his upbringing) or yobs at this point in his career.At work he has bizarre relationship with a work colleague (Steven Wright) and hits it off with a kooky artist (Joan Cusack.)Henderson is sent down by his boss to the Gothic south to purchase a loss Renoir that the eccentric Harry Dean Stanton purchased in France at the end of the war. While he is there he encounters various family oddballs including Stanton's son who hates him and find himself in the middle of a rival bidding war for the painting.The film is meant to be a bizarre comedy but it is uneven and strained. The characters are painted in broad brush strokes, some with limited screen time as the film is choppily edited. It has a loose structure which makes little sense again highlighting issues in the editing.Whatever William Boyd's novel was, it did not hit the screen. DDL looks uncomfortable with the slapstick but at the end his Henderson might have found himself in amongst all the shenanigans.

It may be a far cry from classic screwball comedy, but even during its many forgettable moments this fish-out-of-water farce isn't a total write-off. Certainly there's nothing in it to justify the cold-blooded lack of confidence that killed it at the Box Office: the throwaway release it received is usually reserved for lame dogs someone wants put out of misery, and in this case it worked.At least the film never pretends to be anything more than what it is: a self-consciously wacky social comedy with an outsider's exaggerated, broad-as-a-barn-door view of American manners, starring Daniel Day Lewis as a dapper English art appraiser who runs into an oddball collection of cartoon Confederate rebels while investigating a lost Renoir in backwoods Georgia. All the film needs is a laugh-track to become a respectable TV sitcom (a degenerate Beverly Hillbillies?), but director Pat O'Connor doesn't show much aptitude for low comedy, and the laughs collapse into a feeble slapstick conclusion, leaving the door wide open for a sequel which will never be made.

Oh, how I would love to own this on DVD! A marvelous job by Daniel Day Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, Joan Cusack and Glann Headley. In my opinion it is a deep South tour-de-farce. I guess you have to have lived there to appreciate the humorous poke at what lies behind the moss-covered trees that line the backroads of the South. It reminds me of Out on a Limb, a similar Southern dark comedy with Matthew Broderick. Both are hysterical weekends with people whose family trees "don't branch!!" You'll never see Lewis doing this whimsy again, except perhaps as the pansy boyfriend in "Room with a View" which he did at about the same time. Both characters are played with equal artistic integrity he grants all his roles. Kudos and many laughs to all!

This is one of those rare films that seems to divide into only two groups: You will only be able to love or hate this movie. However, I think the previous reviews leave out an essential element to determining which camp you fall into: whether you are interested in the actors (based on previous roles) or the film.The best way to give you some idea of what to expect is the usual vehicle: comparison with other films. If you loved Martin Scorcese's film, After Hours or enjoyed Something Wild (with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels) or were even guiltily amused by Who's That Girl (Madonna and Griffin Dunne), then you will probably like this movie. Stars and Bars uses a similar formula of "straight laced, uptight man" being taken for a wild adventure by "free-spirited, sexy woman".Obviously, this would put someone like Daniel Day-Lewis into the right role (a tightly wound serious man), but in a very different universe from films like "My Left Foot" and "The Age of Innocence". If you are hoping for another period piece or serious art, this film is not for you. Luckily, I happen to like films that range from Wim Wenders to the latest Adam Sandler vehicle. :)