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01/10/03

1 hr. 53 mins.
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer, George Clooney, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kristen Wilson, Jennifer Hall
Directed by: George Clooney

Rating: ** ½ stars (out of 4 stars)

Should our suave martini-sipping Agent 007 James Bond be looking over his shoulder for fear of losing his coveted job in the espionage business? Or how about the haphazard Agent 86 Maxwell Smart for that matter? The reason for the inquiry is because we seem to have a new hired hit man in town that can be easily identified as Agent Outrageousness (a.k.a. alleged CIA government operative assassin Chuck “The Gong Show” Barris).

In first-time director George Clooney’s devilishly twisted and flamboyant yet self-indulgent and erratically gimmicky off-the-wall drama Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, we’re asked to ponder the tasty irreverence of television’s colorful clown Chuck Barris’s raucous public and private life. Clooney, who’s aided by a bizarrely hectic script courtesy of the talented and in-demand screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich”, “Adaptation”), helms his showy vehicle with noted insanity. But despite the sturdy competence of Clooney’s animated direction and the trademark inspired wackiness of Kaufman’s shrewd and brash writing, Confessions intermittingly comes across as a pseudo-cynical, cockeyed comedy that tries desperately to capture its wildly imaginative gumption. Although delightfully overzealous, Clooney’s field trip of loose-ended frivolity sputters aimlessly in our attempts to embrace a complicated soul being presented as a sympathetic human question mark.

This slightly uneven, wily narrative is based upon Barris’s semi-autobiographical book of the same name entitled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: An Unauthorized Autobiography. Of course Barris’s read would draw out some skeptics as to the validity of his so-called private high-wire exploits. Is Chuck Barris’s secret life as a governmental gunman a crazy concoction designed to elicit more dubious attention to this egotistical and zany pop cultural icon behind the boob tube madness that gave us the likes of painfully infectious games shows The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game? Is it an implausible ruse to believe that The Gong Show guru was entertaining the national television audience with cheesy two-bit amateur acts on his perversely silly program while entertaining the notion of targeting his next hit for his top secret high-powered federal employers? Who knows as to whether or not this giddy TV titan’s colorful claim is a put on? After all, anything is possible when it comes to the warped world of whackjob extraordinaire Chuck Barris.

Sam Rockwell gives a slick and distinctively satisfying performance as the tarnished Barris, a bewildered narcissist at the center of this tawdry tale of temptation and turmoil. Although Barris is very high on himself in praise and opinion, there still remains a hint of uncertainty that’s saddled in his personal flawed makeup. This, however, didn’t stop the curly-haired, cocky character from supposedly leading a double life of mystery and mayhem as a contract killer who incessantly craves sex. With a sexually liberating wife named Penny (Drew Barrymore) and many side dishes that he would eventually cuddle up with in the sack, the pesky and persistently slovenly Barris was ready to take on a whole new exciting albeit ominous adventure.

While in transition of waiting for his big turn to break into show business, Barris is curiously beckoned by the United States government to come and work for them. The beguiling offer from the feds promised the inquisitive Barris the romanticism of international travel to exotic locations and the delicate involvement in American covert operations around the world. And yes, as a side note, he would have the professional permission to perform killings in the name of his country’s insistence.

Barris regularly checks in with his CIA mentor and recruiter Jim (George Clooney) as he dictates to him his various missions. By now, Barris has struck a chord as a successful creator of TV game shows in America. Thus, the harried hit man soon finds himself using his game show clout as a cover for his spying activities. Conveniently, Barris is able to accompany contestants from his game shows abroad in Europe while making occasional connections with fellow agent Patricia (Julia Roberts). It is on these promotional TV-related junkets that Barris is put into action with his official killing duties.

It’s not long before Chuck Barris finds the rewarding recognition of being the catty ringleader of what would become his signature bread-and-butter ticket to national stardom-being the host of the ludicrous and lame no talent-seeking guilt pleasure The Gong Show. Almost instantly, Barris became as lovable (and equally as irritating) as the semi-regulars and clueless participants that paraded around on this insufferable yet convincingly popular “treat”. Chuck Barris was soon the toast of the town and roguishly unique unlike any other TV host ever to appear in front of the camera. He was inanely high-spirited, self-absorbed, an instigator of innocuous bad taste and basked in the revered glory of his treasured televised eyesore of a creation. And this led to more of Barris’s carnal cravings that came much easier this time around thanks to his familiar stint with the off-kilter The Gong Show.

In essence, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind wants to convey the outlandish antics of an oddball personality who became fortunate thanks to his relentlessly creative off-balance pursuits that led to his ultimate celebrity as an unlikely entertainment-based wheeler-and-dealer. But the film also strives for the caustic look at a dumpy unassuming man about to welcome the inevitable echoes of debauchery that hastily comes as a price to pay for the flirtation and fickleness of fame and fortune.

Clooney’s storytelling abilities is a decent sordid affair that somewhat defines what a complex and insecure individual that Barris was in his unstable existence. As a filmmaker, his visual style is inventive in the way he colors his on screen images with vibrant colors and haunting shadows to reflect the moodiness and tone of the film’s brooding and mischievous protagonists. Kaufman’s screenplay is at times uproarious and keenly scathing. Still, one never gets the adequate feeling of exploring the real chaotic, dangerous mind of the quietly hostile Chuck Barris. Sure, we are introduced to his behavioral tendencies that include sexual fulfillment, drinking, his killing assignments, the penchant for hogging the spotlight, etc.

But with this sentiment aside, we somehow fail to get a defining handle on Barris’s fragile psyche as a wounded guy caught up in his divisive universe. Maybe the movie’s charm is meant to feed into the notion of Barris as an elusively ridiculous figure we will never grasp as a completely conceptual plagued person. Whatever the case, the emotional edginess and ribaldry being displayed here more often than not is needlessly labored and the static concerning the off-the-cuff trimmings of intrigue laced with caustic comical forethought wears thin after a while. As a soul-searching dark comedy, Confessions is palatable in its feisty knack for flair but it could have dug deeper psychologically into its sardonic, nutty shell.

As a Clooney-related enterprise, I enjoyed his Confessions project more than I did his other ventures as a co-producer with cinematic collaborator Steven Soderbergh with such tepid fare as the lukewarm cozy heist flick Welcome to Collinwood and the dull sci-fi romantic fantasy Solaris. With Confessions, Clooney has a fantastic time with spontaneously tackling the flighty dimensions of an absurd cad in the preposterous form of the self-serving Chuck Barris. The ex-Gong Show provocateur is certainly the epitome of anyone that is willing to lasso their ambitious dreams-shortcomings and all-and bring it to the forefront in an opportunistic, awkward and lucky manner.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is joyfully rambunctious and disturbingly toxic in its captivating skin. If only the motivation behind Chuck Barris’s calculating impulses for finding absolute acceptance as a so-called Washington D.C. hit man and accidental Hollywood hit maker was closely examined from a more involving introspective point of view amidst the hostile hilarity then this viably frothy vehicle would have definitely been the ultimate straight shooter!