Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Review

by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)
December 30th, 2002
Susan Granger's review of "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (Miramax Films)
Do you remember - in "A Beautiful Mind" - when schizophrenic John Nash Jr. had the hallucination that he was recruited as a spy for the CIA? This dark comedy asserts that Chuck Barris was also conscripted during the Cold War - think of "A Beautiful Mind" on an acid trip. Creator of TV's "The Dating Game," "The Newlywed Game" and "The Gong Show," Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) re-invents himself periodically - and, this time, he's enlisted as an independent contractor by a sinister agent (George Clooney) to participate in secret cloak-and-dagger assassination missions with a beautiful, if lethal, overseas operative (Mata Hari-like Julia Roberts). In one, he inventively hides microfilm in his anus. Of course, none of this is known or even suspected by his longtime love (ever-giggly Drew Barrymore). Written by Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation"), inspired by Barris' unauthorized autobiography and directed by George Clooney, it's like a preposterous Hollywood in-joke with celebrities popping up in goofy, sycophantic cameos. (Marie Bertrand, the Montreal bartender who was Clooney's on-location squeeze, gets a pivotal scene playing a bachelorette who unwittingly rejects both Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.) Barris' real-life contemporaries Dick Clark, Jim Lange and Jaye P. Morgan lend deceptively authentic commentary to his "downward spiral of debauchery," along with skilled lighting by cinematographer Newton Thomas Siegel, Stephen Mirrione's editing and a memorable soundtrack. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is a cynical, ludicrous, self-indulgent 3. One saving grace: George's late aunt, Rosemary Clooney, warbles "There's No Business Like Show Business" at its conclusion.

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