Simpatico (2000)

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

The first must-see film of the year.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Matthew Warchus directed 'Simpatico' has an interesting premise, but the advantage of it's promising concept, doesn't really reflect on celluloid. Reason? The Screenplay is stretched & slightly unspoken. It offers a few interesting moments in the first hour, but the second hour doesn't offer much.'Simpatico' is a tale of betrayal, greed, vengeance & complications. Though adapted by a play, this drama begins well, but, as told before, drags itself too much towards the end, and thus, the impact goes amiss.Matthew Warchus has directed this story fairly. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is passable. Acting Wise: Nick Nolte is just about okay. Jeff Bridges is decent, while Sharon Stone gets very limited scope. Albert Finney and Catherine Keener are noticeable.On the whole, An Average Fare, At Best.

I really don't know where to start. The characters weren't that believable at all. The development they have gone through (as you see them in their youth as well) and the development they go through during the movie just doesn't make sense to me.And the plot, you can smell something similar to a plot here and there, but that is as close as you get. The first 15-20 minutes it works, it feels like an ordinary movie. But then it just breaks down and you wonder what the message is, what the story is, what the heck this movie is supposed to convey.In summary it's a pointless flick that doesn't strike any chords in me anyway.

Just from reading the main cast of this, one would expect a marvelous drama. Nolte, Stone, Bridges and Finney... such grand talent in the craft of acting. The fact that the writer/director had never worked in movies before or since didn't worry me too much... The Wachowski brothers handed in first-class work the first time they tried their hand at directing, and their first script... well, OK, but they've later redeemed themselves for that turkey. The cinematography is not unique, but it has moments. The editing is much the same... effective at times, but rarely breaks away from the norm. The plot is fair... it develops nicely throughout, providing the back-story and evolving throughout. The pacing is OK. The acting is pretty good, I didn't really find any performances to be lacking. I think my main issue was that I could simply not understand why the people acted like they did, for the majority of the film. I never anticipated their actions, I never followed their motivation and got to the conclusions that they did. Also, the themes and ideas seem to be nothing more than side-notes... none are explored with much effort. All in all, I found this to be a decent-looking film with sufficiently good acting that just didn't make an awful lot of sense and didn't spend enough energy on giving the viewer anything solid, be it an idealist message or simply food for thought. I recommend this to fans of horse-racing, as it features a few very nicely shot sequences of horses, and, to a lesser extent, fans of the actors and possibly those who know the play(as I don't know it myself, I wouldn't be able to tell you if this were a good translation or not). 5/10

When 5 past Oscar nominees headline a movie, naturally, one would have rather high expectations. Such is the case with `Simpatico' a high-profile drama which went by relatively un-noticed when it was released 3 or 4 years ago. But I am surprised that it only received a 4.4 rating on the IMDb. I'm not saying that the film was a classic or deserved enormous critical plaudits, but I definitely think that it deserved more than that. It is an adaptation of the stage play written by Sam Shepard. While it starts out promising, it is also surprisingly bland when it reaches the conclusion. But the main problem is the lack of simple definition. It's hard to tell if this is a simple story, or a more complex one. It's unclear whether this is a film about friends reconciling or friends being torn apart by guilt. The film tries going both ways, but the result is a puzzling one to say the least. One thing that it avoids doing is falling into plot-holes, becoming predictable or using average movie clichés. This is done by creating thoroughly flawed but also very compelling characters that certainly aren't your average stereotypes. And they are lifted off paper by exceptional performances from the three Oscar nominated lead players. Nick Nolte (Affliction, The Prince of Tides) gives yet another top-notch performance as the untrustworthy hobo. Jeff Bridges (The Last Picture Show, The Contender) is also very good as his polar opposite- the eccentric millionaire. About two-thirds the way through the movie, the two main character switch places for no apparent reason. It doesn't make logical sense why a millionaire would choose to live like a bum, just because someone stole his wallet. Both actors are better and more believable in their opening personas.Sharon Stone (Casino) makes her first appearance in the movie at about the halfway mark. It's a shame she didn't appear earlier, because it's surprising how convincing she is as the rich and wrecked housewife. She's so far away from the icy sex-goddess of `Basic Instinct' it's hard to believe that this is the same actress. Albert Finney (Tom Jones, Erin Brockovich) makes great support, but Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich) gives the blandest and most over-rated performance. Not only is her part boring and un-necessary, but she even over-acts in certain scenes. Unfortunately, there are some evident flaws scattered around here and there. The `big twist' is uninteresting and it's ironic that Sharon Stone and Jeff Bridges are never on the screen at the same time- After all, their characters are supposed to be husband and wife! But the brilliant acting alone makes `Simpatico' qualify as a good if un-remarkable movie. The script is below average and sometimes the movie ventures into blandness, but most other aspects are good as expected. My IMDb rating: 6.1/10.