Hurlyburly Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Hurly-burly is an adaptation of David Rabe's well known play about the intersecting lives of several Hollywood players and wannabes who's personal lives threaten to veer into a catastrophe more interesting than anything they're peddling to the studios.
| Sean Penn | Eddie |
| Kevin Spacey | Mickey |
| Robin Wright Penn | Darlene |
| Chazz Palminteri | Phil |
| Garry Shandling | Artie |
| Anna Paquin | Donna |
| Meg Ryan | Bonnie |
| Gianna Ranaudo | Susie |
| David Fabrizio | Store Manager |
| Kenny Vance | Singer |
| Michaline Babich | Receptionist |
| Frank Somerville | TV Anchor |
| Sharon Tay | TV Reporter |
| Bob Jimenez | Newscaster |
| Anthony Drazan |
5.50 out of 10 (5411 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Awful film
posted on 06 Aug 2009I could go into a long exposition about this movie and why I disliked it...but I won't. The characters are truly horrible people, real as they may be. I found myself detesting them completely. I can't relate to this film in any way. The only thing I can conclude is that it must have been made by self centered Hollywood types FOR self centered Hollywood types. Palminteri's character is probably one of the worst screen characters I've ever seen. As I mentioned earlier, most of my stomach wrenching was in direct result of this guy. It's a bizarre film, and in the least, it'll leave you being thankful for your "normal" life.
A good cast laboring in vain toward a stale conclusion
posted on 16 Jul 2009A great cast with this one, and it appears obvious that everyone is acting their buns off, But the vision is sophomoric. It's as if the writer/director was thinking of something lofty, profound. But like a lot of profound discussions and ideas folks have after seven beers at 3:00 in the morning, the light of day reveals that the whole thing is rather banal. The realizations and insights that the characters labor toward at best would be very ordinary, not worth a movie, but in fact ring false. Yawn.
Omigod, I know these people!
posted on 10 Jul 2009Eddie and Mickey must be pulling down some good bucks as casting directors, because they live in a fabulous pad up in the hills (where most of the scenes take place), drive BMW's and rack up horrendous bills on their cell phones. They are HAPPENIN', baby, living the high life in L.A. But, wait a minute...it looks like BEING high is pretty much what their lives are all about in the long run, because their existences are empty, futile and shallow, so they seem to do a lot of coke and weed to try to have a better time. Eddie (Sean Penn) is especially unhappy, so he does more drugs than anybody else and then goes into long, coked-out, nonsense raps. Have you met anybody like these guys? Well, I have and they are dead-on.
This play is real, as far as I can see, and maybe the people who didn't like it don't like to see the ugliness of everyday reality. The person who compared this to "Glengarry, Glen Ross" is absolutely right and as I watched this film, I thought of that movie, also...excellent ensemble cast throwing red-hot lines at each other like arrows. Sean Penn especially was awesome, but I thought all the actors did incredible jobs. I loved the screenplay, too, but felt that it petered out in the last 15 minutes and never really had a resolution. Favorite scene: Sean and Robin driving in the car trying to decide where to eat and escalating into a WWIII level argument...I've BEEN there!
What your basic movie should have...
posted on 28 Jun 2009After watching Hurlyburly (yes, I did make it to the end, isn't that amazing) I began to wonder what a movie should at least have to even call it that: - Some sort of story, direction, line, whatever you want to call it. The feeling that after you finished it, you're thinking: okay, this was a movie. You may have liked it or not, there's a story told and it ended at the end of the movie (which doesn't mean a movie can't have an open ending), it should just have the feel of 'a movie'. Clearly, Hurlyburly hasn't. This babbling doesn't have a point and could have gone on and on for another 2 hours (isn't that horrific?). - We should feel for/with/against the actors. They bring some sort of emotion upon us. Whether it's love, hate, fun, anger, anything. Personally, I couldn't care less about these so-called interesting Hollywood guys. - Good acting. Not every movie can have top-notch actors in it, but if you DO have them don't waste it like that. Particularly Spacey should feel ashamed after watching his 'performance'. - Now, if you don't qualify on each of the above (as Hurlyburly so painfully clearly didn't), you should at least be able have a laugh at the movie. But I didn't. There were no nice puns or jokes in the entire movie, not a funny situation, nothing. Just 2 hours of blahblah with no direction, bad-ass acting and characters I couldn't care less about. Don't waste your time on this drivel, people. 1/10 (and I don't give that too often).
Blahblahblah, Inc.
posted on 22 Jun 2009"Hurlyburly" is mostly a waste of time. Based on David Rabe's play about a group of successful LA types drowning in their own misery (with drink, drugs, and empty sex to help them on the way down), it drones on too long about too little, the big-time cast wretching its way through it until a bigger gig comes along. Centered around two Hollywood bigwigs who share a posh home in the Valley, Kevin Spacey plays the glib, smart-ass role in which he excels, but too often gives the impression of going through the motions, drawing on past attitudes and inflections from other films. He is, in truth, doing Kevin Spacey's "act" (though a great act, I admit) rather than creating a newly formed character. Only an assured confrontation scene with Sean Penn near the end saves his performance from the truly banal. Garry Shandling turns up playing his usual dysfunctional Jew, but he's completely out of place in this setting. The smallness of his range and the pettiness of his plight, idiosyncratic hallmarks of the stand-up comedian are more suited to clubs or TV. And Chazz Palmintieri is repellent every minute he's on screen. His crude, doltish persona is suited for playing small-time gangsters and not much else; he can't articulate the dialogue he's given. When he's given cuss lines to speak, blended in with words like "realm" or "inasmuch", he's simply not believable. This is either bad casting or bad screenwriting.
Personally, I think it's both. In another scene, he cusses out a pretty young girl because her good looks interfere with his football watching. But the scene doesn't come off because even the swearing has a writer's touch to it, a poetic lilt that Palmintieri is unable to convey. And later on, when he kidnaps his own baby from the maternity ward, he falls flat again, because, as an actor, Palmintieri possesses so little humanity, one cannot believe he is the type of man who would be touched by the beauty and delicacy of a newborn. It is an earnestly rotten performance. About the only one who puts any effort into this thing is Sean Penn, but the material is beneath him. A roadside meltdown with his girl friend over a choice of restaurants is funny and adept, but a lot of his scenes seem overwrought (a coke-addled lament of the wrongs of the world, for instance). This is not entirely Sean Penn's fault; he is simply trying to breathe life into a corpse. But it's at least partly his fault because he should have known it was a corpse. Meg Ryan and Anna Paquin also appear, doing nothing of any significance. 2** out of 4
phenomenal acting, slow pacing
posted on 19 Jun 2009an interesting adaptation of the play, of course there is much lost in the translation (pacing etc.) but the performances are brilliant especially Chazz Palminteri who i believe gives his best performance ever as phil a violent talentless wannabe actor who is desperately seeking meaning to his life in the soulless city of LA. Penn is also good as the slimeball with the heart of...slightly less slime quality material. Like Phil he is becoming more and more disenchanted with existence. All the characters seem to have a problem with cocaine and an inability to love. (is there a correlation?)Kevin Spacey is fun as himself and Meg Ryan is surprisingly not as "herself" as usual as a fading single mother party girl who gives fellatio to celebrities in moving vehicles...wacky. the movie is a great ensemble experiment and there are a million great moments that warrant it for multiple viewings.
what a waste of time
posted on 19 Jun 2009Well,all I know is I want the 2 hrs. back in my life that I spent watching this god-awful movie. Considering that I had it on DVD as part of netflix's 15 free DVD rentals so in actuality I paid nothing for it and am still complaining,that has to tell you something. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to watch 2 hrs. of people doing drugs,etc....
Kind of a downer of a movie.
Rubbish!
posted on 14 May 2009Someone up there said "...the people who didn't like it don't like to see the ugliness of everyday reality.." I dont think so. This is supposed to be reality? A really cool guy (Spacey) lives with an annoying screaming whining drugged up little moron (Penn).This film is over the top. Secondly, its amazing that 'Sean Penn' while very highly drugged up can speak for ages about philosophy.Unrealistic.I only saw it because i was on holiday in Italy and it was the only english speaking film there.Only go and see it if you really have to. Its a very difficult film to watch, what with Penn always talking in that (Agggh!) STupid Nasal Whine!!!!!!
Could have been a lot better
posted on 23 Apr 2009Rabe wrote the screenplay for a 1998 film version directed by Anthony Drazan. He condensed the action into two hours and updated the setting from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The cast included Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Robin Wright Penn, Garry Shandling, Anna Paquin, and Meg Ryan. Penn's performance won him the Volpi Cup and Drazan was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Penn also was nominated Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.The play is over three hours long. Thank God the film wasn't that long.
Perfect Movie of It's Kind
posted on 23 Apr 2009The movie is about a circle of drug using and abusing Hollywood friends who are very wordy, take their thoughts very seriously and follow their own morals. These are not characters everyone will want to know - but it's superbly done and the characters are all types you might expect to find in that milieu.The Sheryl Crow song during the closing credits ends the movie perfectly. The film is very modern in it's post religious outlook in that it suggests that there is no inherent meaning to life and that this is nothing to be depressed about.
Two hours of neuroses presented by a strong cast.
posted on 14 Apr 2009For two hours, we're exposed to the neuroses of Eddie, played by Sean Penn. For me, this was too long to focus on the single character. However, strong supporting performances by Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Anna Paquin and Meg Ryan make the film worth watching. Provided that you can put up with a group of pathetic, disgusting and hateful characters, there's much interesting commentary on the human condition.
Not just great performances
posted on 08 Apr 2009Every single actor in this movie does an incredible job...this movie reminded me a lot of Glengarry Glenross in its style. If you want action or an enthralling plot, you'd better look elsewhere. If the movie was this good, the stage play must have been great. Just check out the cast on the trivia section to see what I mean.
great actors, terrible script
posted on 12 Mar 2009The trailer for this movie made it look quite excellent so i was excited to see it. What a joke. The acting is, of course, great. It would be virtually impossible to have an ensemble of such talent and not have at least the hint of genius. However, the dialogue is so shallow and so transparent i could barely stand to keep watching. It was as if the screenwriter, who i'm sure constructed a great play from these characters, wants us to believe that just because coked up freaks can use ten dollar words every four seconds that makes them deep and insightful when truly they are all just pathetically sick.
This plot and script must have played out much better on stage, but in it's film version it just came out so convoluted and silly. The only good, solid character was Darlene and she ended up looking like queen of sluts through the eyes of Eddie and he was supposed to be in love with her. I usually love unconventional films where there may or may not be an obvious pro/antagonist, but to at least have one marginally likable character would have benefited this film greatly. That character potentially could have been Meg Ryan, but, the disturbing story about the presence of her daughter rendered that impossible. Overall a twisted movie that could have been really brilliant, but ended up just plain annoying
what a colossal waste of film
posted on 07 Feb 2009It's not funny, it's not interesting, it's not well shot, you don't care about the characters, not one single one of them. There's nothing that engages you in the narrative flow, you really could care less what happens. Big, big waste of time and talent.
Interesting
posted on 11 Jan 2009I found this movie to be quite an interesting experience. My main reason for purchasing the film, is Kevin Spacey. Every movie I have seen of his, I have enjoyed, and then I come to this. His character, I will admit, is the only one I found to be interesting in the film. It took me a while to figure out exactly what this movie was about. Sean Penn, I found amazing in "I Am Sam", and as I watched this film, he progressively in my mind, was Sam. That is all I can picture. Now, the talent they had for this film was absolutely amazing, and Kevin Spacey shined. Chazz Palmenteri's character had some interesting issuse's with his life, however, his acting seemed forced. Meg Ryan, is Meg Ryan, she always will be the same girl in every role she plays. If you are looking for a thought provoking movie, this is one for you, however, be prepared for some slow going.
Great movie, more theatrical than cinematic
posted on 12 Dec 2008A touching movie about friendship and dependency viewed through the distorting lens of rampant nihilism.There's a theatrical eloquence to the dialogue that lends it mesmerizing power. It has a literary quality that some people will find unbearably pretentious, but which I found deeply moving.The movie starts out with a fast paced barrage of hilarious absurdities. As it gets slower and more ponderous it sometimes veers off course, but in a sense this just deepens the sense of human frailty. Similarly the somewhat grasping conclusion does not significantly detract from the film's main thrust.Acting by Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn and Garry Shandling is absolutely top notch. Chazz Palminteri isn't always as convincing. Excellent showing by Meg Ryan.
In my opinion, the best thing about this movie was Anna Paquin...
posted on 18 Nov 2008This movie had SO many huge stars I thought it couldn't be that bad...I was wrong. It was just one of those movies that was all together...awful. But Anna Paquin's character Donna stuck out in my mind, not just because I respect Anna as an attract but because of how perfectly she portrayed the character she did which let me say, is different from every character she's played and I loved and noticed her first. I couldn't watch the whole movie, I just taped the parts with her and moved on.
Funny like a head wound.
posted on 03 Nov 2008Over-acted and without a real point, Hurlyburly collapses under it's own weight. Somehow, watching hedonistic narcissists try to find a reason for their coked up existence isn't that enthralling. Kevin Spacey is brilliant as usual, giving his lines an acerbic sting. Sean Penn is all free association and limb flailing. This movie is definaiely dark, but is sure isn't a dark comedy. Somebody should tell the director that just because his characters are patheticly ridiculous and in a drug induced forum debating life, sex, power and death, it isn't ha-ha funny. It's funny like a head wound.
Good and bad.
posted on 25 Oct 2008I had really mixed feelings about this film. I have always respected Sean Penn, and while he certainly had a ton of interesting dialogue to share I found myself always waiting for Kevin Spacey to come back into the scene. Another thing that was interesting was to hear a constant stream of metaphysical thoughts and ideas interspersed with threats of violence (all through a thick Brooklyn accent) coming out of Chazz Palmintieri's mouth, but he was just shy of pulling off his philosopher-thug character. The two best performances were actually from Gary Shandling and Meg Ryan in supporting roles. Worth a rental, but don't be afraid to fast forward through Sean Penn's scenes with Robin Wright. I wish I had. And Sean Penn's little Wayne Newton mustache also bugged the hell out of me. I know we weren't supposed to really like or even identify with his character, but it was just begging to be ripped off his lip. Spacey has a few particularly insightful lines about friendship and why we keep some people around when we probably shouldn't. I liked it, but it dragged near the end and Penn was chewing the furniture a bit too much.
Miserable Hollywood guys have no clue: Only a girl is wise.
posted on 27 Aug 2009The message of this film seems to be that all men are pitiful and women sometimes can be wise. At least some girls can.Buddha-like runaway Donna (Anna Paquin) explains things to drug-addicted, over-intellectualizing Eddie (Sean Penn), while Mickey (Kevin Spacey) and Artie (Garry Shandling) crack jokes, often at the expense of violent, confused Phil (Chazz Palminteri).In Donna, we see Anna Paquin, whom we first met only five years ago as a little girl in "The Piano", as a sex object. Not only is she very sexy, she also acts very well indeed.Sean Penn's Eddie, on the other hand, is a basket case. This is vaguely amusing at first, but his histrionics quickly become wearing. Three minutes of his weeping and frowning would have been more effective than the thirty or so which we are subjected to.Kevin Spacey gives an amusing and understated performance, which is not so very memorable, but Chazz Palminteri's Phil has few really likable qualities.Meg Ryan is pleasant in a small role as a druggie slut, and Garry Shandling, in another fairly small role, is as amusing as ever. Robin Wright has a few good scenes as Darlene, the love-interest.In the end, however, the film seems rather empty and strangely unaffecting. It tries to push many emotional buttons, but somehow fails to do so. It also appears to be trying to have a message, but it wasn't communicated very well, unless it is the message at the beginning of this review.If you are a real fan of any of these actors, go see the film. Otherwise, don't bother. In the end, this is one film without a real plot and without a real point.