VOTE EARLY. VOTE OFTEN.
Private eye Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston) is hired by gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager’s (Chris Cooper) people to find the connection between his enemies and a dead body. The U.S. presidential campaign of 2000 inspired John Sayles to make this movie; the result is a Bush-bashing drama that warns us of powerful political families and advises us to look out for the environment. Sayles offers beautiful Colorado scenery and a mystery to keep our attention; there’s always something interesting going on in the film. The sprawling cast is headed by Cooper, perfect as a senator’s clueless son whose rhetoric certainly reminds one of the 43rd president.
2004-U.S. 124 min. Color. Produced by Maggie Renzi. Written and directed by John Sayles. Cast: Chris Cooper (Dickie Pilager), Danny Huston (Danny O’Brien), Richard Dreyfuss (Chuck Raven), Maria Bello, James Gammon, Daryl Hannah… Kris Kristofferson, Mary Kay Place, Tim Roth, Michael Murphy, Billy Zane.
Last word: “One of the things that was really fun was that we knew we should, and that we could, cast stars. Familiar, recognizable faces. And it helped once a few jumped on the bandwagon to get the rest. For example, Michael Murphy is not an actor we knew. When I talked to his agent (and who could have been perhaps the oldest agent alive), I had to explain to him that Michael would not have his own trailer, would not have an additional first-class ticket for his wife and the agent was like, ‘Well, what is [Kris] Kristofferson getting?’ He didn’t care about Maria Bello, and he didn’t care about Chris Cooper. He cared about somebody of Michael’s vintage which was pretty much Kristofferson and [Richard] Dreyfuss. With all the big names in the cast, we wanted it to be like a revelation, like, who was going to open the door next?” (Sayles, Hollywood.com)
