Excellent, a Must See

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

A man wants to quit the family business of contract killing in this uneasy mixture of black comedy and drama. If it had been constructed as a comedy, it had possibilities, but the dramatic parts fall flat due to clichéd characters and a trite script. Macy seems too old for the role of the whiny killer who learns that his shrink is his next hit. Campbell is a hottie lesbian who is attracted to the plain, middle-aged Macy; that's about as believable as it sounds. The best thing about this forgettable film is the adorable performance of seven-year-old Dorfman as Macy's precocious son. Bromell makes his film debut as writer and director, but is not up to the task.

Writer/director Henry Brommel has done a wonderful job with his film, "Panic," from the year 2000, and that includes his choice of cast: William H. Macy, Tracy Ullman, John Ritter, Neve Campbell, Donald Sutherland, Barbara Bain, David Dorfman. Brommel has cast Ullman and Ritter in decidedly un-funny roles, and the offbeat casting is a welcome change from what we normally see."Panic" is the story of a hit man, Alex (Macy) who actually works for his father (Sutherland). He covers his true profession by doing mail order work; by all appearances, he and his wife (Ullman) and their son Sammy (Dorfman) are a typical suburban family. Unhappy with his life, Alex seeks the help of a psychiatrist (Ritter), telling only his mother (Bain). In the waiting room, he meets a young woman (Campbell) to whom he is immediately attracted, which complicates his situation further. His mother breaks her promise and tells his father about the psychiatrist. When Alex receives his next assignment, he discovers that he is to kill his psychiatrist.This is a profound story of a gentle, good man made into a killer by a monster of a father, with his mother's knowledge, who kills to please his father but also can't stand up to him and quit. His rage is so deep-seated that he has lost emotional attachment to just about everything and everyone except his son - and it's finally his son who wakes him up out of a nearly lifelong repression. When it's time for "Panic" to moves, it does - quickly."Panic" doesn't seem panicked at all. In fact, it moves very slowly. But it moves slowly not because it's poorly made - the slowness is deliberate, mirroring Alex's own psyche slowly coming out of the fog. By making a decision about Sara, the Campbell character, and by seeing his mark, his own psychiatrist, as a living, breathing human being, Alex starts to make the connections between what he does and who he is -and how they don't jive. And the difference between the two could lead to the loss of another psyche, Sammy's.William Macy gives another brilliant performance, as a loving father, a distant husband, and a cold killer, the child of two monsters who never cared a damn for his feelings or desires, a man who realizes finally that he has to step up to the plate or have the cycle repeated.This is not the kind of drama that plays well in a movie theater. It's too adult, too small, too subtle, too character-driven, and too good.

This film has so many good things about it that watching it was frustrating for me, since I could never swallow the story line. William H. Macy plays Alex, a hit man who is carrying on the family business under pressure from his father. The first obstacle for me was accepting the mild-mannered Macy as a hit man. I can accept the fact that there are hit men living in apparently normal circumstances and keeping their business a secret, I just did not accept Macy in the role. As the father I suppose Donald Sutherland portrays a person who is amoral enough to be a hit man, but there again there was some hardness lacking. Think of the hit men in "The Godfather" and compare.The next obstacle was believing in the relationship that developed between the young, beautiful and lively Sarah (Neve Campbell) and the confused, middle-aged and withdrawn Alex? What was there about Alex that would attract Sarah, who was shown as predominately lesbian? I didn't see it.The scenes with Alex and his six year old son Sammy were touching and were the only scenes where Alex seemed relaxed and engaged. But the kid spoke in a manner way beyond his years and clearly was just reciting written dialog.Alex has kept his death-dealing profession a secret from his wife. Supposedly he made a living by running a mail-order business selling lawn ornaments, kitchen gadgets, sexual aids and such. Does his wife really think that he is supporting the family with that kind of business? She would certainly have to be involved in such a business to make a go of it, and consequently she would know about the finances and see that things did not add up.The dialog tended toward the affected. For example the first lines in the movie have Alex saying to himself, "Do you ever get the feeling that you're dead? Like some dog lying on the street that's been hit by a car and left there to rot." Does anyone actually talk to himself like that?The music tries to add an element of suspense and threat but I felt it was too intrusive.Having said all of that, the beautiful photography saved this movie for me. The settings are artistically composed and the lighting impressive. And the actors are all in good form. It's too bad that all of this talent was not put to better use.

I thought the movie was carried by the strength of the actors in the lead roles but the dialog occasionally took some odd turns that seemed out of character. The grandfather and grandmother going off on Sammy as they did were completely out of character. And Sammy himself was too unbelievable. Six-year-old kids don't talk like he does in this film. I felt like reaching into the screen and slapping him.I had some issues with the basic elements of the story as well. Two people making a living (and it appears to be a very good living) off of contract hits while being completely off the law enforcement radar is not only improbable but impossible. Consider the grandfather was doing it before the son took over we're looking at 40 years or so of killing and no cop ever had a clue!Anyone who has ever fired a gun knows how hard it is to hit a target. A young kid killing a squirrel with a pistol shot is near impossible, especially on his first outing. My biggest problem was how predictable the plot became. I knew Macy was going to hookup with Campbell; I knew who the target of the hit was; and I knew who Macy was going to shoot in the end. Way too predictable.