FEST2003

Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind
George Clooney, director  

 Review by Rada Djurica   

"My name is Charles Hirsch Barris. I have written pop songs, I have been a television producer, I'm responsible for polluting the airwaves with mind numbing puerile entertainment. In addition, I have murdered 33 human beings."

- Chuck Barris

Wouldn't you like to hear the confessions of the gorgeous George Clooney? The one who expressed his reservations towards President Bush's war in Iraq by failing to show his pretty little butt to the 2003 Oscar Awards? Maybe this time, but only this time, the organizers thanked him for that, banning everyone else from comment on the bombings.

One of the dangerous minds in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" belongs to Chuck Barris. Chuck was the creator of hit 1960s television shows such as "The Dating Game," "The Newlywed Game" and "The Gong Show." His mind was dangerous in a bad way; and it's a pretty spooky idea. The other dangerous mind belongs to George Clooney, who co-stars in the film as Jim Byrd, and is making his film-directing debut. For such a big budget actor, Clooney turns out to be quite good with directing. So his mind is dangerous in a good way.

The movie is based on Barris' 1982 memoir of the same title, in which he claimed not only to have single-handedly masterminded those hit shows at the beginning of the '60s, but also to have worked, simultaneously, as a secret assassin for the CIA, killing 33 people. Maybe that explains why on the TV show "The Dating Game," the selected couples often won trips to places like "glamorous West Berlin" or "fabulous Helsinki" in the drop dead, freezing cold winter.

So Chuck Barris turns out to be not only a man with two faces, but also a man with two completely different lives. Agent Jim Byrd (our little bird), provides the contrast between two completely different worlds and gives Barris the first push towards the killing trade. On the one hand, we have a successful social climber, headed to fame in a booming TV industry. And on the other, we have a CIA assassin. Of course, the contradiction between his glamorous career and his hidden life becomes too much to handle. He's also torn between a woman who loves him and the mysterious, unknown woman that he fantasies about. To achieve balance and control over both lives, he needs to discover a mole. Who is the person inside who wants him dead? The beautiful woman (Julia Roberts)? Perhaps Agent Byrd (George Clooney) or one-time special appearance characters in his TV shows (Brad Pitt, Matt Damon)?

We first meet Barris (Sam Rockwell) standing naked and unshaven in a hotel room, staring at the television. Being a game show host or a government killer, or perhaps both, has produced a sort of mental disconnect. Of course, one of the movie's main themes is that no one knows much, or perhaps nothing. The more serious the movie becomes, his spy games becoming true, the goofier it is. It looks like a joke, but it's not. Who would suspect a TV producer could be a killer? No one. Very original. Through flashbacks, we see how he got in that room in the first place. First, he writes a minor pop hit, "Palisades Park," which gets play on "American Bandstand." TV is next. "The Newlywed Game" becomes a hit: "Any American would sell out their spouse for a new refrigerator or washing machine. Such was the respect for the institution [of marriage]."

Everything's going perfectly -- he's got the Hollywood pool to prove it -- when a mystery man named Jim Byrd recruits him to serve his country, secretly. While his loyal hippie-chick girlfriend, Penny (Drew Barrymore), waits for him at home, Barris is partying with a femme fatale agent, played by Julia Roberts. Partying around the stage in his own Chuck World, Barris appears to be on speed or grass or probably both. Sitting by himself in some corner of the jet set, his hat pulled down Sinatra style, the actor provides some sort of psycho flashbacks of his life. Rockwell is very good throughout, capturing Barris' inherent sleaziness and also his insecurity.

Roberts is ever so slightly unnecessary; she's just far too "sweet" to do the Mata Hari thing. The one having the most fun of all, however, is Clooney. He certainly is Agent Byrd. As the film director, he toys with the movie's idea, "Is this just a fiction or did it really happen?" His direction is imaginative -- especially visually, which is not something that is usually associated with actors-turned-directors.

The pleasure, I think, comes in the telling of this tale, getting people going, getting them to enjoy themselves. Besides, what does it matter what Barris is or is not? The goal of Clooney's dangerous film director mind, is, I think, achieved.