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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Performances In A Picture That Tries Really, Really, Really Hard To Be Both Outrageous And Lovable, December 27, 2006
Mark Mylod's largest film to date has been "Ali G Indahouse," a sporadically funny (but often silly) Sasha Baron Cohen character picture. For those now on a "Borat" high, you might want to catch up on another Cohen creation. Ali G can be an amusing hip-hop poser, but the film done as a conventional narrative lacks much of "Borat"'s imagination or ingenuity. So, several years later, it's impressive that he has aligned a cast of such magnitude as was assembled for the black comedy "The Big White." We've got Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson, Tim Blake Nelson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Alison Lohman in a comedy of murder, kidnapping, insurance fraud, phone psychics, and mental illness. Set in a small Alaskan hamlet, many people would like to compare this film to "Fargo." While the film shares some of the same comic sensibilities and a similar wintry locale, it's kind of like comparing "Casablanca" to "Pretty Woman." Both films may have a certain appeal, but they are definitely in different leagues.
Williams plays a down-on-his-luck travel agent with financial difficulties and a wife with Tourette's (Hunter). Needing cash, he tries to collect on his missing brother's insurance policy. Ribisi, as the insurance investigator, informs him that his brother has not been missing long enough to be considered legally dead and there's nothing that can be done. In a coincidence, a couple of amateur hitmen dump a body in the dumpster outside Williams' agency. Williams, on discovering the corpse, masterminds a plot to get his brother declared dead. The hitmen, then, are ordered to retrieve the body (which is now missing) and all types of mayhem ensues.
I will say that "The Big White" has a lot going for it, and I can imagine some people really enjoying it. For myself, however, the picture was always trying too hard to be outrageous--it's not grounded in the reality, heart, and subtlety that accompanied "Fargo." Yet it isn't played as an outright comedy either, it does expect you to care about the characters (which I really didn't, except as a mild diversion). I give all the actors credit for giving robust and committed performances. While not a huge Ribisi fan, I actually thought this was one of his better performances. And Tim Blake Nelson, as one of the hitmen, continues to be an underrated presence in any movie. A few words for Holly Hunter, whom I miss as a major actress. She is appealing, as always, in a cringeworthy conception--the Tourette's as a "cute" disease syndrome.
There are plenty of funny bits, some macabre humor--but there is so much going on (there's another story involving Ribisi's home life, and then there's Harrelson), the picture always felt slightly off balance. I certainly didn't regret watching "The Big White," it just never engaged me the way I wanted it too. A mild recommendation (especially if you like the actors), it might be a slight and enjoyable romp for you. About 3 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 12/06.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Check Out "The Big Empty" Instead, September 11, 2007
I don't need much of a budget to write a review of a film, only a little bit of my time for watching and writing. That said, I'm confident that if I had "The Big White's" $16 Million budget, indie director's dream cast, and lame "Fargo" inspired script; I could have made a better and more entertaining film. My first move would have been to throw some of the budget into a major script re-write, maybe just sending the thing off to the Coen brothers themselves for a quick IQ transfusion.
The "Fargo" rip-off comparisons are valid, but that does not mean that there is much about "The Big White" with which "Fargo" fans will connect. The similarities are pretty much confined to setting (Alaska instead of Minnesota), production design (white), and basic plot elements (two bumbling hoods, financially desperate businessman, kidnapped and bound wife), and a side story featuring an odd domestic couple (an insurance investigator instead of a female sheriff).
The "Fargo" disconnects are more subtle. Instead of a crime thriller with black comedy elements, "The Big White" is a black comedy with crime thriller elements. Which would not be a problem except that "Fargo's" occasional ironic comical moments have several times more amusement value than "The Big White's" frenzied efforts to inject some humor.
Secondly, on its most fundamental level "The Big White" is mean spirited. While "Fargo" parodied the great white north culture of Minnesota, the characters themselves were comfortable inhabitants of their strange white world; they had grown up there and were well suited to their environment. In "The Big White", the conflict and the character motivations stem from a desire to escape from a remote Alaskan town that seemingly has no virtues.
In The Big White, a failing Alaskan travel agency owner (Robin Williams playing his Jack Dundee character from "The Best of Times-1986) schemes to collect on his missing brother's life insurance policy by claiming that a dead body he has found in a dumpster is that of his brother. Things become complicated when two bumbling (possibly gay) hoods (Tim Blake Nelson and W. Earl Brown) kidnap his wife (Holly Hunter) because they need the body to prove that they have carried out a contract killing. Hunter's character may or may not have Tourette's Syndrome, a psychological condition which may or may not have comic potential in a feature film. But we will have to wait for a better script and a better to director to find out because the results are inconclusive here.
The main side story involves an obsessive insurance investigator (Giovanni Ribisi) and his air- headed telephone psychic girlfriend (Alison Lohman). Their scenes together provide the film's best moments and the only times when it manages to duplicate "Fargo's" almost poetic humor. Ribisi is solid in all his scenes and you wish a bigger part for Lohman.
If you like small off-kilter films (with big name actors having fun with their performances) you would be far better served by "Dummy" (2002) and "The Big Empty" (2003). "The Big White" tries for the feel of these two films but falls short.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blackmail, death, corpses, and lots of snow..., June 5, 2006
The Big White is a bizarre and quirky thriller featuring a great cast and some fabulous location work. I'm surprised the movie never got a theatrical release it so richly deserved. The movie is fun all the way, although some viewers may find all the dark, murderous and often blood-soaked antics a bit over-the-top.
Robin Williams stars as Paul Barnell, an Alaskan travel agent who's nearing bankruptcy. Paul also has to contend with his wife Margaret, (Holly Hunter) who's suffering from a psychosomatic form of Tourette's syndrome. One night Paul stumbles upon an abandoned corpse in a dumpster he decides to pass it off as the dead body of his missing brother Raymond (Woody Harrelson), so he can collect the insurance money.
However, Paul hasn't reckoned on the attentions of ruthless insurance claims' investigator, Ted (Giovanni Ribisi) who is determined to eke out the truth about Paul's brother. Paul also has to contend with the two bumbling killers (Tim Blake Nelson and W. Earl Brown) show up and threaten to harm Margaret if they don't get their corpse back.
The Big White gets right to the nasty action early on when Paul tries to fit the corpse into a refrigerator. Soon the violence spreads to living victims, with beatings coming at one point or another too much of the cast.
Alison Lohman does a nice turn as a Ted's girlfriend but the most interesting character is Margaret, who bewilders an intruder with a barrage of unexpected projectiles and spews forth-vitriolic profanity at a moments notice.
The Big White is definitely worth watching for those who like their humor dark and irreverent, with money, blackmail, death, madness and lots of snow make up most of what you'll see.
The performances are all enjoyably idiosyncratic and it's a refreshing change to see Williams playing such a normal character when the other characters are all so bizarre and outrageous. There isn't that many plot surprises, yet the wonderful Alaskan locations more than make up for any narrative deficits. Mike Leonard June 06.
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