Jackpot Review
by "Harvey S. Karten" (film_critic AT compuserve DOT com)June 21st, 2001
JACKPOT
Reviewed by Harvey Karten
Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Michael Polish, Mark Polish
Writer: Michael Polish, Mark Polish
Cast: Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Garrett Morris
"Go for it," and "Be all you can be" are the
signature slogans of the free-spirited,
capitalistic, ambitious folks; but don't dismiss
as party-poopers the guys who say "Don't
give up your day job." In "Jackpot," a fellow
who never really had much of a day job
(unless you count selling some overpriced
gallon jugs of carpet cleaner) decides to hit
the road in pursuit of the American Dream.
Since Mark Polish, who wrote the screenplay
and Michael Polish who directed the film have
more in common with playwrights like Edward
Albee and Arthur Miller than with the go-getters who appear on early-morning TV, they take a decidedly pessimistic view of a scheme by one Sunny Holiday (Jon Gries) while at the same time providing us in the audience with a sympathetic view of a man who even believes he has a good chance to hit the numbers in the lottery.
Starting out from somewhere in the central
or western reaches of the U.S., Sunny plans to hit roadside karaoke bars, enter the
competitions, and win the hundred bucks or
so in each case by swaying the judges with
his personality, his country-western looks,
his day beard and ten-gallon at, and a voice that falls short of matching eorge Jones's. As he delivers his semi-mellifluous pitches to the pre-recorded sounds of some of the well-known country-and-western ballads, he learns something about himself while city-slickers in the audience get to eavesdrop on the karaoke circuit with which they may be only marginally familiar. Making plans with his buddy and manager, Lester Irving (Garrett Morris), Sunny--who despite his name is not too bright--abandons his ticked-off wife Bobbi (Daryl Hannah) and his one-year old daughter for a nine-months' tour that doesn't get him where he wants to go but allows him to meet and have a roll-in-the-hay or two with some of the blondes who regularly patronize or work the circuit of song.
Jackpot, Nevada--which is the ultimate destination of Sunny and Les--is apparently not just the Nashville of the karaoke beat but the obvious, metaphoric (and ironic) goal of pursuers of the American Dream. A road-and-buddy movie, the Polish brothers' feature is a road-and-buddy movie, deliberately paced (in other words, not the kind of tale that's likely to be mistaken for Rob Cohen's "The Fast and the Furious." By holding to a lingering gait, the Polish brothers get a chance to show what really counts in this sort of story--the details: the nervous tics by Sunny's brother Tracy (Anthony Edwards) whose confidence in the singer never palls; the assortment of gestures by Sunny's manager Les, who alternately chews him out and regularly puts their heads together in prayer before each performance; the small, flashing eyes of Bobbi, who is positively appalled by her man's desertion and stunned by the one-dollar lottery ticket he mails to her religiously every month as child support--sincerely believing he has a chance to hit the jackpot.
The meandering story is an acquired taste
but a welcome antidote to the Michael Bay-
Jerry Bruckheimer noisemakers, the
explosions taking place not on the island of Oahu but solely within Sunny and Les's heads. We sit and wonder what it would take to get some sense into Mr. Holiday's head, something to counterbalance the outpouring of optimism that has made America the country that it is while at the same destroying many a person's soul.
Whether or not you'll dig the story, the movie is an important technical breakthrough as photographer M. David Mullen makes first use of a digital video format that shoots 24
frames per second to give the picture at least the clarity of high-definition TV. You could easily tell the difference between the look provided by the new technology and, say, the cinema-verite appearance of Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh's digital video recording of "The Anniversary Party." In fact we hear that George Lucas is currently shooting the second installment of "Star Wars" with this camera.
"Jackpot" has all the quirkiness of the Polish brothers' debut film, "Twin Falls Idaho," which featured Jon Gries and Garret Morris as well, a poignant and oddball tale about a pair of Siamese twins, one of whom falls in love with a hooker.
Rated R. Running time: 96 minutes.
(C)2001, Harvey Karten, [email protected]
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