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Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

Movie Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind Director George Clooney Cast Julia Roberts George Clooney Drew Barrymore

This is a first-rate effort from first-time director, George Clooney, who just happens to be one of my fave rave heartthrobs (with Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, Harrison Ford, Robert de Niro, Pierce Brosnan, Ralph Fiennes, the list is long and I could go on and on…but let me stop here.) Based on a self-styled “autobiography” by an American TV producer called Charles Hirsch Barris, the screenplay by Charlie Kaufman straddles two important segments of Americana: Entertainment and Espionage, specifically, the idiot box and the CIA. In the book, published in 1980, Barris claims he moonlighted as a hitman for the CIA between writing pop songs and “polluting the airwaves with mindnumbing puerile entertainment.” I have my doubts about his self-disclosure as an assassin, I would rather categorize Chuck Barris’ book as a memoir, a literary genre which affords plenty of room for recording accounts of life/history etc as we see/perceive/experience it. In other words, the purely subjective. For, as we all know, the way we see ourselves may not be in sync with the way others see us and/or the way we are. Some years ago, a Mossad operative blew the whistle on the Israeli intelligence agency by coming out with a tell-all book. That confessional account rang true. I haven’t read the Barris book, but going by the film as an accurate if selective representation, I’d say I’m not inclined to think of Barris as a killer. And though Kaufman’s screenplay cleverly charts the self-pronounced evolution, rather degradation from a funny, likeable guy to calculating murderer, I would say the episodes of spying and counterintelligence could either be the outpourings of a highly inventive mind or the plagiarised experiences of some other agents. Well then. Will the real Chuck Barris please stand up? I know you’re laughing all the way to the bank. As for the movie which deserves a close reading and analysis with cinema students, let me just say in summation, that the music, superb acting (esp Rockwell and everyone’s sweetheart Julia Roberts who is devastating as a ccold- blooded Mata Hari) Clooney’s skilled direction and the splendid lensing and editing make Clooney’s tale of a looney truly memorable viewing.