Really Surprised!

Expected more

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

The Gingerbread Man was based on an original story by John Grisham that was subsequently adapted into screenplay form. The film stars Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Famke Janssen, and Robert Duvall.The screenplay was written by Al Hayes and directed by Robert Altman. This tale that begins at a party where Savannah attorney Rick Magruder celebrates his successful defense of a man who shot a local cop. The party-goers include his ex-wife Leeanne, the mother of his two children; his law partner Lois Harlan; and caterer Mallory Doss. After Mallory finds her car stolen, Rick gives her a ride home where things turn sexual. Attracted to Mallory, he learns that her crazed father Dixon Doss has been threatening her. Getting too closely involved with this woman he hardly knows, Rick has the police round up her unstable father, and he next subpoenas her ex-husband Pete to testify against Dixon, who is institutionalized. The crazed Dixon manages to escape from the asylum, intent on revenge against all his betrayers and enemies. As a potent hurricane blows into Savannah, Mallory's car is torched, and Rick receives threats. Believing his children are in danger, Rick removes them from school, prompting a warrant for his arrest. When his children disappear, Rich goes on the counterattack against Dixon.The movie is a decent story but Robert Altman and his great cast make the most of the material and deliver a solid movie.They took what could have been a generic and ordinary movie by investing artistry and effort, he made it into something more despite of it being uneven and predictable.As for the performances,Kenneth Branagh that holds this film together and does it well.

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 Gingerbread Man is the first thriller I've ever done!" – Robert Altman In 1955, Charles Laughton directed "The Night of the Hunter", a spooky slice of Southern Gothic in which Robert Mitchum plays a spooky serial killer. One of that film's more famous sequences consisted of two kids escaping from Mitchum on a rowboat, the kids frantically paddling whilst Mitchum wades after them like a monster. Seven years later Mitchum played an equally creep killer in "Cape Fear", another film set in the American South. That film featured a local attorney trying to protect his family and likewise ended with Mitchum terrorising folks on a boat. Now we have Robert Altman's "The Gingerbread Man", another slice of small town Southern Gothic. Altman says he consulted "The Night of the Hunter" for inspiration and tackled such a mainstream film purely because he wanted to "spread his wings and try a popcorn picture", but what he also seems to be attempting is a deconstruction of the canonical films of the genre.So instead of a showdown on small boat, we get a showdown on a giant ship. Instead of two kids being kidnapped, we get two kids being safely returned to the police. Instead of money being hidden, we have money being readily given via a last will and testament. Instead of the righteous attorney of the 1961 film (and the deplorable attorney of the 1991 remake), we get a rather three-dimensional lawyer played by Kenneth Branagh. Instead of the monster chasing the family we get the hero chasing the bad guys. Instead of the monster breaking into the family's house boat, we have the hero hunting the monster on board the monster's "house ship". Similarly, instead of a murderous serial killer we get an innocent weirdo played by Robert Duvall. . .etc etc etc.Altman goes on and on, reversing everything just a little, pulling at the edges and doing his own thing. His touch is most apparent during the film's first half-hour, the film existing in an uneasy space between conventional plot-driven storytelling and Altman's fondness for overlapping dialogue, narrative lethargy, prowling camera movement and the way that characters aren't so much introduced as they are simply part of what's going on.Still, despite Altman's best intentions, "The Gingerbread Man" never rises above mediocrity. Altman's too bound to the conventions of the "thriller format" to do much damage, his style is too slack to generate tension and the film is simply not radical enough to counterpoint other canonical films in the genre. "Gingerbread Man" is thus too mainstream to work as a more pure Altman film and too Altman to work as a mainstream thriller.The film's not a complete waste, though. Robert Downey Junior, Kenneth Branagh and the usually intolerable Daryl Hannah all turn in juicy performances. The film also has a nice atmosphere, set against a approaching hurricane, and the final act contains some interesting twists and turns. While it's not the complete hokey disaster that Scorsese's "Cape Fear" was, the film still never amounts to anything memorable.Incidentally, in the late 1990s Altman made 3 successive films set in the American South: "Kansas City", "Gingerbread Man" and "Cookie's Fortune". With its hierarchies of class, politics and crime, and its desire to break radically away from your typical gangster narrative, "Kansas City" is the more important of these three films. That said, "Cookie's Fortune", whilst a much slighter tale, is perhaps the better picture. 7/10 - Altman claims that this is his first thriller, but he directed "Images", an art house thriller, in 1972. Worth one viewing.