COOKIE'S FORTUNE (1998) |
| Starring Glenn
Close, Julianne Moore, Charles Dutton, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell,
Patiricia Neal, Ned Beatty, Courtney B. Vance, Rufus Thomas and Lyle
Lovett.
Screenplay by Anne
Rapp.
Directed by Robert
Altman.
Distributed by USA Films.
118 minutes. Rated PG--13. |
|
Robert Altman's greatest films
take a compassionate look at a wide-ranging variety of quirky characters
(M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player). Unfortunately, his bad films do, too.
Which brings us to Cookie’s Fortune, in which a bunch of eccentric
southern folk get together in a picturesque setting and nothing really
happens.
Oh, sure, Cookie (Patricia Neal), the matriarch, kills herself
--apparently because she still hasn’t gotten over her husband’s death
decades before. Her nieces, the overbearing Glenn Close and the put-upon
Julianne Moore, pretend it was a murder to protect their names and their
inheritances.
The nice handyman (Charles Dutton) gets held for the crime,
allowing Altman to make some very standard points about racism. We know
Dutton is innocent and so do all the other characters, so it is less than a
riveting predicament. Liv Tyler, Chris O’Donnell, Courtney B. Vance, Ned
Beatty and Lyle Lovett are amongst the other fine actors who have nothing to
do but act strange and southern.
Cookie’s Fortune is essentially a
lot of very talented people spinning their wheels. (12/98)
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©1998
PopEntertainment.com All rights reserved.
Revised:
March 20, 2021. |
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Copyright ©1998
PopEntertainment.com All rights reserved.
Revised:
March 20, 2021.
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