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The Walker

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

THE WALKER (defined as a man who escorts rich ladies around town in their leisure) is both a pungent political comment and a fine mystery from Paul Schrader who both wrote and directed this smart film and had the good fortune to surround his tale with a fine cast of actors. It may not be a film for everyone, but it will satisfy viewers who tire of superficial fluff films, allowing time to ponder the way we live and converse today.

Carter Page III (Woody Harelson in one of his finest performances) is an openly gay, well-heeled, dapper man about town who devotes his life to pleasing the wealthy wives of men in high government levels in Washington, DC. Together with Abby (Lily Tomlin), Natalie (Lauren Bacall), Chrissy (Mary Beth Hurt), and Lynn (Kristin Scott Thomas) the group gossips, plays canasta in an expensive hotel parlor, and confides secrets that are surefire rumor fodder. Lynn is escorted by Carter to her lover's home for a tryst only to find the lover murdered. Carter attempts to protect Lynn from scandal only to become implicated himself. Carter discovers secrets about his own insecurities, and while he is solidly supported by his lover Emek (the excellent Moritz Bleibtreu), an artist of strange works that prove subtle background connotations of the mystery that is unwinding, he must face the realities of his decision when confronting husbands, lawyers, police, and intelligence agents (portrayed by such fine actors as Ned Beatty, Willem Defoe, William Hope and Geff Francis). The story is, in many ways, an examination of the corruption in Washington, DC - a fact that may explain why it did not enjoy a long theater run.

For viewers who appreciate fine dialogue and a smart story with well-delineated characters portrayed by superb actors, this is a film that should not be neglected. Grady Harp, June 08

Written and directed by Paul Schrader ("The Comfort of Strangers," "American Gigolo") "The Walker" stars Woody Harrelson as an openly gay man Carter Page III, the son of a Virginia senator, in contemporary Washington, D. C. who escorts rich, idle women-- Lily Tomlin as Abigail, Kristin Scott Thomas as Lynn and Lauren Bacall as Nathalie-- around the city and plays canasta with them every Wednesday. Mary Beth Hurt, Ned Beatty and Willem Defoe are cast as well.

As we would expect from Mr. Schrader, "The Walker" is a dark film about power and political corruption in the highest levels of government. Reminiscent of Truman Capote, Page, dressed in high fashion double-breasted suits and a toupee, keeps the women laughing with his gossip and campy one-liners ("I need a dirt fix") until a lobbyist is murdered and he suddenly finds himself the chief suspect. His brittle women friends are suddenly not available and he is left with his cat Lancelot, that he confiscated from the dead man,and his boyfriend.

Kristin Scott Thomas gives a fine performance as a senator's wife. Lauren Bacall plays Lauren Bacall, but, hey, she looks great for whatever her age is. Lily Tomlin, although she has a small role, is good as always. Woody Harrelson may have been wonderful on "Cheers" but he is miscast here. For starters, he has a strange Southern accent that at times sounds like he is Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" and at other times like the gay soldier Brando plays in "Reflections in a Golden Eye."

Mr. Schrader has certainly made better movies; but if you are one of his fans, you should see this one too. I'd give it a very low B.

I found this compelling to watch as the performances of Bacall, Harrelson, and others successfully pulled me into what was a deliberately slow-paced film. Harrelson is impressive as he appears in virtually every scene and does a great job as the gay "Walker" caught up in a murder. It's been some time since I saw a movie that had to be carried more on plot and acting and less on car chases and special effects. But keep the pause button handy as you will need to stop the action and ask others in the room for clarification on what is being said and done - I say that in a good way in that the viewer will second-guess the anticipated outcome.

"In the end, all you have is your breeding. It's all that separates `them' from `us,'" says Natalie Van Miter, rich, aging doyen of Washington high society.

"My great-grandfather got rich off slavery," says languid, gay, agreeable Carter Page III, escort for powerful women in the nation's capital, who is beginning to have second thoughts, thanks to a murder, about his life. "When the Yankees took that away, my grandfather made his money raisin' tobacco. I don't have any breeding."

"If your great-grandfather were alive today, he'd fit right in," says Natalie, with an affectionate squeeze to Carter's arm.

Car (Woody Harrelson), as his lady friends call him, always meets them for weekly Canasta games at an exclusive Washington club. They dish the gossip about everything and everyone, except about themselves. There's Natalie (Lauren Bacall), acerbic with a smile; Abigail Delorean (Lily Tomlin) the vice president's wife and no fool; and Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott Thomas), unhappy wife of Senator Larry Lockner, the Senate's minority leader. They all adore Car, who dishes with the best of them. And Car adores them. He's a "walker," an unthreatening, well-bred man who takes wealthy women from place to place when their powerful husbands don't want to go.

Car even escorts Lynn Lockner to her secret weekly assignations with a lover, waiting in the car for her to return an hour or so later. This time, however, Lynn returns in minutes. She found her lover, a financial wheeler-dealer who had been scheduled to testify before a Senate committee, sprawled dead in the man's living room, stab wounds in his chest and, well, lower down. Car decides to protect Lynn, one of his favorite ladies, so he drives her home, returns and then calls the police and says he just found the body.

Carter Page is a man who has lived his life carefully. "I'm not naïve," he says at one point, "I'm superficial." He's never been willing to fully commit to his boyfriend. He uses soft-spoken wit to deflect anything too serious. "How come you're always so polite?" asks Lynn at one point. "It was my mother's answer to chaos and now it's mine," he tells her. He loves being a friend to his powerful, witty, sharply amusing ladies. Before long he's going to find himself the chief suspect in the murder, a target of an obnoxious prosecutor who is delighted to nail Carter with the crime. His boyfriend gets beaten up. Ruthless, political maneuvering in high places leaves him exposed to the elements. In some ways most hurtful, he realizes that his ladies, while still gracious, aren't inclined to play Canasta anymore with him. Even Lynn now is nowhere to be found. "Let me give you a piece of Washington wisdom," Natalie Van Miter tells him. "Never stand between a friend and a firing squad."

The Walker, for the first two-thirds, is a brittle, amusing satire of Washington society and the self-interest that makes it work. The last third, for me, slows down a bit because Paul Schrader, the director, begins to take his view of Washington politics too seriously. There are cracks about the current administration that are a bit old hat. The murderous intent to win at the political game turns from wit to something a little like melodrama. Still, The Walker for the most part is clever, with an unexpected performance by Woody Harrelson as the languid, gay Carter Page III, with a soft Southern accent and a wonderful wig. A couple of critics have said Harrelson was miscast. I don't think so. It just takes a few minutes to accept Harrelson, usually cast as grinning psychos or mentally deficient cowboys, as a tall, good-looking Truman Capote. Carter Page and his predicament with his ladies brings back memories of Capote thinking he was best pals with New York high society queens Babe Paley and Slim Keith, only to be cut dead by them when he dared to print the real dish. Capote proved to be both naïve and superficial (except when it came to his writing). So does Carter Page III until he starts putting the pieces together.

Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin and Kristin Scott Thomas are marvelous as Carter's realistic, witty, self-involved friends. They know the real dish; so does Carter; and they delight in sharing with each other. In fact, the movie has a number of first-rate actors, including Willem Dafoe, underused but effective as Lynn Lockner's ambitious husband, Moritz Bleibtreu as Carter's boyfriend and, particularly, Ned Beatty as Vice President Jack Delorean, a smiling, aging politician who is fully prepared to do whatever it takes to gain the advantage over anyone he thinks isn't American enough.

The DVD transfer looks just fine. The only extra of significance is a standard "making of" featurette."

To see Kristen Scott Thomas at her coolest and most determined, watch that singular movie of entomology and incest, Angels & Insects. Lily Tomlin, in my view, is an extraordinary actor, able to combine tart, skeptical intelligence with unexpected warmth. Two of her earlier movies I like a lot are The Late Show and All of Me.

This movie is well-done and has an interesting story line. The gay son of a former Washington VIP ends up being the escort to prominent married ladies attending social events in DC. A lobbyist is found murdered who has ties to all of them. His reputation is sacrifecd in the ensuing investigation that takes some unusual plot turns.

An interesting slice of life about a certain segement of social/political Washington.

Woody Harrelson gives a fantastic performance as a Carter, a third generation rich man who is living in DC. He is homosexual which makes his a perfect social companion to high society women married to powerful men. His manners, education, politeness and lack of sexual threat towards women allow him to glide in their company effortlessly. Their company gives him tips for investments that provide for his luxurious lifestyle. Until one day, his dear childhood friend runs into a trouble and Carter gets accused of murder he did not commit. Will carter remain loyal and protect his friend even at the price of him being accused of the crime he did not commit? Or, will he be dishonest and save his own skin? It is mesmerizing to see all his friends turn their back on him; Carter looses his job, his lover is beat up and everything that Carter has built until then starts to dissipate slowly, but surely. He never looses the temper and plays the game to the end. This is one of those stories where there is a winner and then there is a moral winner. With all of his shortcomings, Carter comes up as a moral winner. Steep price to pay, but Carter embraces it anyway. He is middle aged, his hair is gone, he is alone and left to his own device. But somehow one knows that a great guy like him must have something good going for him after all that's happened. Cast of magnificent actors accompanies Woody Harrelson on this journey: Lauren Becall, Lilly Tomplin and Kristen Scott Thomas. One must mention that Brian Ferry's music is a wonderful choice for this film.

Looking at The Walker in the closeout bin of the video score, you're thinking, great cast (Woody Harrelson, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Ned Beatty), great director/writer (Paul Schrader), intriguing setting (Washington D.C.), and intriguing premise (Woody as escort to political wives, caught up in scandal); so why haven't I heard of this film? Answer: It was essentially released straight to video, so, apart from a few film festivals there was little chance of seeing this film or hearing about it. Which was a shame but understandable given its fatal flaws in spite of all it had going for it.

Let's get the inevitable comparison out of the way. The Walker is a lot like American Gigolo, both films written and directed by Paul Schrader. Rather than a remake, it takes the character of Julian, but in his fifties, now out of the closet; and as if he had been a Southern scion of a political dynasty. Oh, yeah, and as played by Woody Harrelson instead of Richard Gere. There are similar scenes where Carter Page III (Harrelson) goes over his wardrobe in meticulous detail, but instead of a workout hanging upside down from his exercise boots Woody works over his wig, placing it on a pedestal in a vault-like chamber when every hair is finally in place. Instead of Deborah Harry with Blondie and Giorgio Moroder, we get Bryan Ferry and Roxie Music.

Another difference is that while the women of American Gigolo paid Julian to make love to them, Car, as he is called, merely takes them to the opera or gossips with them over canasta. He orders another Sea Breeze. He WILL dish the dirt with the rest of the girls. Their husbands are relieved of the boring duty of taking their wives out to charity fundraisers while secure in the knowledge that Car is a very close friend of Dorothy. Though Harrelson himself disliked his own performance, I thought it was OK, though a little affected. Don't know of any Gay Southerners who actually talk like Carter Page III, except perhaps Truman Capote. Woody struck a tone somewhere between Capote and Sean Hayes as Jack on Will & Grace. He also had a lisp, like he had just had his tongue pierced, or was wearing false teeth. The latter was actually true.

Supporting Harrelson's flamboyant performance was a stellar cast of talent. Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, and Kristin Scott Thomas portrayed the women in his gossip circle. Bacall was most impressive, still acting well and looking pretty though she has got to be an octogenarian. Was it 1944 when she said to Humphrey Bogart "You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow." Tomlin didn't have much to do, but nevertheless, she did it well. She was back playing Ned Beatty's wife, as she did in Nashville, and I'm sure she was thrilled about that. Dafoe was a Senator, and about as far away from Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart as Peru is from Washington, D.C.. My one regret is that we didn't get to hear Woody say "I bet you can squeal like a pig. Weeeeeeeeee!" to Ned Beatty when he finally gets the goods on him.

Both The Walker and American Gigolo suffered from the same flaws, and would have been a Triumph of Style over Substance were it not for The Unbearable Sloppiness of Schrader. He is more interested in the characters and their dazzling surfaces then he is in crafting a believable thriller. Like Carter Page III, he might not be naïve, but he sure as heck is superficial. It was too hard to follow the murder mystery plot, and all of the pieces of the puzzle didn't fit anyway. Why should we care when the director clearly does not? The plot turns on too many convenient coincidences. Other details don't hold up to scrutiny, such as there is an arrest for leaving the scene of an accident, but that is not a crime if you are just a passer by, not the driver of the vehicle in question--merely The Walker. As in Bobbitt Vs. Bobbitt, the evidence just didn't stand up in court.

The bottom line is The Walker is enjoyable for a very special performance by Harrelson, a great cast, and interesting direction, but doesn't really delve deeply into the political aspects, and is disappointing as a murder mystery/thriller. No wonder it was released straight to video. If I could have named this movie, I would have chosen a less pedestrian title than The Walker, like, The Kiss of the Spiderwoody.

A Scanner Darkly (2006) Woody Harrelson was Ernie Luckman
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) Woody Harrelson was Dusty and Lily Tomlin was Rhonda Johnson
Auto Focus (2002) Willem Dafoe was John Carpenter, directed by Paul Schrader
Gosford Park (2001) Kristin Scott Thomas was Sylvia McCordle
The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) Woody Harrelson was Larry Flynt
Natural Born Killers (1994) Woody Harrelson was Mickey Knox
Bitter Moon (1992) Kristin Scott Thomas was Fiona
Nashville (1975) Lily Tomlin was Linnea Reese and Ned Beatty was Delbert Reese
Deliverance (1972) Ned Beatty was Bobby
To Have and Have Not (Keepcase) (1944) Lauren Bacall was Marie 'Slim' Browning

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Carter Page III: It'll all work out.
Ethan Withal: Don't be naïve.
Carter Page III: I'm not naïve... I'm superficial.
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The Walker--Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty---great group of stars. One of Mr, Harrelson's opportunities to act as he is capable.

Story of the superficial trappings of the life of the political crowd.

Marvelous company of stars, good script and a job well done to
provide you with decent entertainment that has dialogue worth
listening to.

Good movie.

Carter Page III - or Car to his friends - is a gay man who works as a paid escort for some of the most well-connected wives in Washington D.C, accompanying them to functions that their husbands have neither the time nor the interest in attending. A Southern gentleman by both breeding and birth, Car - thanks to his role as sympathetic ear to these gabby dowagers - seems to be privy to more of the inner workings of the snooty Beltway crowd than almost anyone else in town. But Car learns that such knowledge often comes with a steep price, when he agrees to help cover up for one of his clients, the wife of the Minority Leader of the Senate (Kristen Scott Thomas), after the lobbyist she's been having a secret affair with turns up stabbed to death in his own home. Before he knows it, Car has become a prime suspect in the case, and when the woman he's trying to protect leaves him to twist in the wind for something she herself may have done, Car discovers just what a superficial, tenuous and unreliable a thing friendship can be.

Written and directed by Paul Schrader, "The Walker" is a subtle and quietly powerful tale of a man who has spent his whole life trying to please the people around him - principally his father - but who learns that in order to survive in this world, he must ultimately put his own concerns ahead of those of others. He also has to weigh which of the three is of greatest value: loyalty to a friend, adherence to the law or the code of self-preservation. For if he makes the wrong choice, Car might well find himself being set up as a sacrificial offering to the almighty Status Quo - an entity that is grotesquely magnified in the shallow, corrupt and cutthroat world of D.C. culture.

Combining a genteel Southern drawl and natty appearance with slightly aloof, effeminate and haughty mannerisms, Woody Harrelson fully inhabits the role of Car, making him supremely confident and strangely vulnerable at one and the same time. A seasoned cast made up of Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty and Willem Dafoe gives the film an air of importance and prestige it might not otherwise have had. There's also excellent work by Moritz Bleibtreu as Car's on again/off again lover who may be in over his head with some pretty shady characters who don't like the fact that he's investigating the lobbyist's death alongside Car.

This film is like a theatre piece: It is about character revealed through words. Not the usual for a medium dependent upon visuals. (Still, the film does look beautiful, and so does everyone in it... they look perfect. Everything is convincing.) This word thing will kill this excellent film for many people, alas. There is intrigue here, and a murder mystery and investigation, political crime from the highest officials and the strong and poignant emotions of love, loyalty, greed and perfidy. But it's all calmly laid at your feet and not thrown at you in a fiery explosion. Ahhhh!.... how refreshing! Indeed, the film deliberately pulls back when the action could get packed. It does not want to be a film about murder and political intrigue. It is a film about people and their relationships to each other. It's about how a gay escort has more character than a Senator. How a seemingly superficial and shallow companion is really the best of men. In that respect it reminded me of "House of Mirth". When Harrelson at the end is ejected and shunned by the women he has been loyal and friends with, one feels he's moving on to a new and better place.

I caught a brief moment in the middle of this film when it was on the tube while delivering something to a friend's house. Even though it was "words, words, words" it kept drawing both of us in, even though we were busy with other things and the TV was just on in the background. It is compelling without "action" and how directors do this is beyond me. Marvelous! How actors come up with linear and complete characters when you know scenes were filmed out of sequence and with the stop and start and do it again mechanics of filming scenes is also beyond me. This film is a beautiful and successful rendering of these amazing arts. Highly recommended!