Product Details

• Actors: Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Charles S. Dutton
• Directors: Robert Altman
• Writers: Anne Rapp
• Producers: Robert Altman, David Levy, Ernst Etchie Stroh, James McLindon, Willi Bär
• Format: PAL
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: French
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004VYCC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,446 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Cookie's Fortune" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dedicated fans of Robert Altman will want to check out this drowsy Southern comedy, which is shot through with the director's feel for location and his musical sense of storytelling. Non-Altman fanatics might want to tread more carefully. Cookie's Fortune begins beautifully, as handyman Willis (Charles S. Dutton) staggers home from a blues club in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. In the wee hours of a warm night, he has an affectionate chat with elderly matriarch Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt (the grand Patricia Neal) and the gentle history of their friendship is sketched in a few brief exchanges. Soon enough, Cookie has checked out of this world to join her dear departed husband, prompting her nieces to make the suicide look like a murder---to protect the dubious family name, of course. They are the local drama diva (Glenn Close), a Scarlett O'Hara in her own mind, and her dreamy sister (Julianne Moore), who ain't quite right in the head. Will Willis be blamed for the murder? Will the inheritance go to the nieces? Will Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell find a place to express their lust? None of these questions is especially burning, and Altman doesn't seem terribly anxious about the answers. Instead, he aims for a particular kind of laid-back quirky southern comedy, unevenly filtered through his screen of sour irony. Like a jazzman blowing improv, some of this works and some of it doesn't. Speaking of music, the film boasts a nifty R&B soundscape devised by former Eurythmics man David Stewart, with a boost from blues belter Ruby Wilson. --Robert Horton

From The New Yorker

Robert Altman, in a benevolent mood, has made a lovely ensemble comedy from Anne Rapp's original screenplay about the fate of an inheritance-the house and jewels left behind by one Cookie Orcutt (Patricia Neal), a fine old lady in a small Mississippi town who misses her dead husband so much that she refuses to spend any more time away from him. Cookie's mad nieces (Glenn Close and Julianne Moore) rearrange the evidence of Cookie's suicide so that it looks like a murder, allowing suspicion to fall on the hard-drinking but amiable black man (Charles S. Dutton) who lives in Cookie's house. But the movie is not the usual protest against racism; on the contrary, the town works like the kind of happy, quarrelsome extended family in which people have put up with one another's foibles for years. As these characters bounce off one another, Altman's habitual malice doesn't disappear, exactly, but it mellows into mischief. With Liv Tyler as a misbehaving but bighearted girl, Chris O'Donnell as the inept young policeman who loves her, and many other skillful performers in minor roles. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Altman, Great Ensemble, and Catfish Enchiladas..., September 19, 2003

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Cookie's Fortune (DVD)

This review refers to the DVD edition of "Cookie's Fortune"....

Glenn Close literally gets caught with her hand in the cookie jar in one of Robert Altman's all star,delightful comedies. It also stars Julianne Moore,Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Charles S.Dutton, Ned Beatty,Courtney Vance, Lyle Lovett,Donald Moffat and screen legend Patricia Neal as "Cookie"....what an ensemble! These great stars work beautifully together, and their comic timing is brillant.

The story starts out at a leisurely pace that gives you the perfect feel of Holly Springs, Mississippi, a small, slow-paced,antebellum town where everyone knows everyone. Then BANG..the little town is shaken up by the death of it's matriach, Jewel May "Cookie" Orcutt, and everyone gets involved with the murder investagation....but wait...was this actually a murder? Someone is sure trying to make it look that way! And uh-oh... the wrong man has been arrested and the police chief is out to prove his innocence. How does he know he's innocent...well..he fishes with him, of course!

Altman's superb direction,the wonderful twists and turns, the great camera work, the music, the terrific story and of course the fabulous ensemble make for a very entertaining 2 hours. You'll want to watch it over and over.

The DVD is a beautiful transfer. You have the choice of widescreen or full screen. The picture is clear and bright with great color. The sound offers the choice of Dolby 5.1 or stereo surround and is excellent. There are closed captions(English) and subtitles in Spanish and French. It includes cast bios and filmographies, and the theatrical trailer. You have the option of listening to the director commentary during the film as well.

So spend some time behind bars in Holly Springs, with Charles Dutton and Liv Tyler. Don't worry it's fun behind these bars..they never lock the bars, and you get to play scrabble and have some great meals! We are serving our famous "catfish enchildas" today!

Have fun with this one.....Laurie

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sweet film from an American master, August 5, 2004

By 

Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cookie's Fortune (DVD)

A necessary corrective to the female relative who at any cost must keep up appearances, this film by Mr Altman sees him in fine form exploring small town society in the Deep South. A humane, wise film, with great acting by all concerned and some great lines " How do you know he didn't kill her?" asks the District Attorney, "We go fishing" replies the Deputy Sherriff.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Altman and a fine ensemble cast make a memorable movie. Charles S. Dutton excels, February 21, 2008

By 

C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cookie's Fortune (DVD)

Says lawyer Jack Palmer to Emma Duval, explaining the fate of her long gone father, a man she was told years ago had died while doing missionary work in Africa after he'd left his family. "He died alright, about four years later, somewhere down in Alabama in a button factory accident. Seems the hole poker machine broke loose and fell on him. They say he had 273 holes in him before they could get it off."

After all that Emma and her friend Willis Richland have experienced in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, it seems perfectly natural when Emma cries out in exasperation, "Willis, what is wrong with all these people?"

The important point is that they all are part of a movie of great ease and geniality. Cookie's Fortune may be a little sentimental, perhaps, but it is so sweet-natured and natural, and so skillfully presented, that I think the film ranks among Altman's most accomplished works...even if what powers it is an old lady blowing her brains out.

Jewel Mae Orcutt -- Cookie (Patricia Neal) - is aging and increasingly infirm, and she longs for her deceased husband, Buck. When she decides to use one of Buck's pistols to join him, she sets off the avarice of her niece, Camille Dixon (Glenn Close), who pulls along her slow-witted sister, Cora Duval (Julianne Moore). Camille is determined that no hint of a suicide will scandalize the family name, so she makes things look like a burglary gone bad. And, unintentionally, makes it look as if Willis Richland (Charles S. Dutton), a close friend of Cookie's who had worked around the house for her, must have done the deed. Well, there's no way Emma Duval (Liv Tyler) an unconventional young woman who is seriously estranged from her mother, Cora, and her aunt, is going to buy that. In fact, no one, even the local cops, believes that Willis would have burglarized and shot Cookie. For the next hour and a half we're going to take part in Altman's gentle examination of the people in this little cotton-growing town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. We're going to learn how to clean catfish, listen to the blues and, a little off camera, how to make love standing up. We'll encounter Camille's obsession with propriety and look aghast at her firm direction (and rewriting) of Wilde's Salome as a church play for Easter. We're going to see how skilled Lyle Lovett is at gutting a catfish and peeping into Liv Tyler's window at night. We're going to learn a lot about family relationships, even the more informally blessed kind. Most of all, perhaps, we're to learn just how much friendship and family can mean, especially when it's served up with such skill and off-beat humor by Altman and screenwriter Ann Rapp. And as good as all the actors in this ensemble cast are, Charles S. Dutton stands out. He gives a fine performance brimming with likeability and honesty, and without a trace of Hollywood nobility. Willis Richland is a guy who has responsibilities, and that's just fine with him.

The DVD transfer is certainly watchable but could be better. There are no significant extras. The disc is wide-screen on one side, pan-and-scan on the reverse.