Name: Retro Film Review: Palmetto (1998)
Item: Palmetto
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

Just like many talented and respected non-Hollywood filmmakers, Volker Schlöndorff, German director whose film The Tin Drum had won Best Language "Oscar" quarter of century ago, had rather disappointing record in Hollywood. Eight years after misguided political dystopia A Handmaid's Tale, Schlöndorff applied his film making skills on the material seemingly unsuitable for the director with such reputation. The result was 1998 thriller Palmetto.

The plot, based on the novel by James Hadley Chase, is set in Palmetto, small Florida town. Harry Barber (played by Woody Harelson), a newspaper reporter, tried to expose corruption in Palmetto's city administration and got railroaded into prison for his troubles. After two years Barber is released and returns to Palmetto in order to reunite with his girlfriend Nina (played by Gina Gershon). Finding decent work is much harder than reuniting with girlfriend and Barber, angry towards the world that took two years of his life, decides to accept first illicit offer that comes along. He doesn't have to wait long and such offer comes from Rhea Malroux (played by Elisabeth Shue), young and sexy wife of Felix Malroux (played by Rolf Hoppe), wealthy local businessman dying from cancer. Rhea's plan is to stage fake kidnapping of her stepdaughter Odette (played by Chloe Sevigny) - Rhea will keep the ransom, Odette would have excuse not to go to boarding school in Europe while Harry would receive more than decent fee for his services. Harry agrees to take the part in the scheme, partly because he is cash-strapped and partly because of the urges coming from the lower parts of his body. However, just like in many similar cases, things don't go as they should and Harry is again in terrible mess.

Schlöndorff wasn't the first film maker to recognise that Florida with its heat, humidity, swamps, beaches and sharp contrast between rich and poor represents perfect setting for noir films. Schlondorff recognised that he couldn't cover that territory better than those other film makers. His efforts were reduced to confident but uninspired direction - he allowed actors to carry the film and extract as much as possible from E. Max Frye's script. Thankfully, the casting was very good - Harelson obviously enjoyed opportunity to play pathetically stupid man and that enjoyment is going to be shared by the audience; Harelson's performance alone brings plenty of humour in the script. Another good casting choice came from playing with female stereotypes - Elisabeth Shue, who had made career in playing nice girls, is formidable in her role of semi-psychotic slut while Gina Gershon, who made career playing bad girls, plays this film's equivalent of Mother Theresa. For the most part Palmetto borders on trash but never crosses that line, except at the ending. That finale is somewhat too surreal and too forced and this is the reason why Palmetto, although entertaining, doesn't belong in the same league with Wild Things and similar "guilty pleasures".

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on May 17th 2004)