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Facade

1997, Movie, R, 93 mins

Facade: Review

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Composed of a series of ironic poses in search of a plot, this picaresque exploration of greed revives tiresome cliches to once again exclaim that the institutionalized are less crazy than "normal" businessmen. Egged on by French wheeler-dealer Frederic Colbert (Angus MacFadyen), real-estate packager Colin Wentworth (Eric Roberts) hires two hit men to kill his partner, Bob Kelner (Tom O'Brien). Impatient to build a megahotel on Bob's property, Frederic demands that Colin also eliminate Bob's widow Caroline (Camilla Overbye Roos), whom Colin is gaga over. As he procrastinates over killing Caroline, Colin encounters a number of eccentrics, including a lascivious nun and a deranged highway cop. Caroline, more resourceful than her late husband, escapes vehicular homicide and thwarts the vacillating Colin, who dies in a shoot-out with one of his paid assassins. In the end, Caroline discovers that her nemesis Frederic -- as well as a number of Colin's other associates -- recently fled an insane asylum. Yes, it's THE KING OF HEARTS meets GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS! A quirky filmmaker like Jim Jarmusch might have pulled off this shaggy-dog story, whose screenplay stretches its thin premise beyond all elasticity. In the hands of director Carl-Jan Colpaert (DELUSION), the characters are merely cartoonish stick figures and the bizarre dialogue seems to float over their heads like comic-strip dialogue balloons. In stylizing this loony land, Colpaert never plants his camera in the right place: Awkward visual transitions and jarring framing are used when traditional set-ups would serve the scenes much better. Clamoring to be cleverly wacky, this off-kilter farce is betrayed by a style best categorized as freshman film-school smart-ass. Even the sporadic comic relief provided by funnymen like Brad Garrett is undermined by a rib-nudging, cutesy musical score. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
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Case Closed: Behind the Facade - Case 3.1
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