David Mamet is a man who wears many hats in the entertainment business. He is an author, screenwriter ("The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Wag the Dog", "The Untouchables"), playwright ("Glengarry Glen Ross", "Edmond"), TV producer and writer ("The Unit") and even a film director ("Heist", "The Spanish Prisoner"). There seems to be nothing this man can´t do. Although Mamet has written a number of screenplays that have resulted in critically acclaimed hit movies, his latest screenwriting effort, "Edmond", ironically based on his own one-act play from 1982, comes up somewhat short. "Edmond", made for a relatively low cost of approximately $10 million, did not do well at the box office, only able to recoup just a small fraction of that budget.
Headlining an impressive cast assembled for this movie is William H. Macy, who plays the title character, Edmond Burke. With Macy embracing this role with his usual understated professionalism, it should come as no surprise to many that the character Edmond is in essence a sad sack with a lot on his mind. The main character´s perpetual misery and even his anger comes through loud and clear on both Macy´s face and also in his demeanor throughout the film. You know, I´ve lost count of how many times we have seen Macy take on the role of losers or underdogs (examples include Bernie Lootz in "The Cooler" or Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo") with his typical character-actor enthusiasm. Like it or not, the bottom line is this: Macy´s essentially the go-to guy for those types of roles. So much so that I´m afraid Macy is already typecast without even realizing it. Poor schmuck!
Anyway, enough about Macy. Let´s jump back into the movie. "Edmond" is essentially one man´s brief but maddeningly eventful journey through a night of morbid self-discovery and perhaps even self-flagellation. Edmond Burke is a New York City white collar worker, the everyman with a dull gray suit and a briefcase, who seems resigned to his own mundane existence. Well, that is until one evening, as he unwittingly steps into a fortune teller´s shop on his way home from another long day at work. In what seems to be an unexpected turning point for Edmond (and also the film), this mysterious fortune teller (Frances Bay) informs our protagonist that, "You are not where you belong". Somehow, for reasons unknown, that innocuous sentence seems to resonate deeply with Edmond, changing his life forever.
Taking the fortune teller´s words to heart, Edmond goes home and confesses to his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he does not love her anymore and that he is leaving their marriage. Moving forward from there, Edmond becomes embroiled in an all-night quest to--as ridiculous and as crude and as simple as it sounds--get laid. Edmond´s journey that night starts at a bar and moves from a strip club to a peep show to a brothel, all the while facing various obstacles of his own making. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that Edmond´s not the sort of guy who´s comfortable roaming the city streets at night looking for action. Potentially, the hopelessly clueless Edmond is just inviting trouble as he dives into the dark underbelly of the city without a life jacket. Trouble for Edmond comes in various forms, like a couple of street hustlers running a shell game scam and a shady pimp with something else on his mind.
As Edmond goes down this path of self-destruction, he meets the sweet Glenna (Julia Stiles), a waitress at a local eatery who, against all probability, somehow finds Edmond actually interesting. However, even this one bright spot in Edmond´s night doesn´t turn out right. I won´t go into the details but it´s safe to say that Edmond´s journey is not a pleasant one and it sure doesn´t end that night. Mamet´s writing of "Edmond" explores some explicit subjects like homophobia, racism and the unflattering use of women of as sex objects. During his "rampage" Edmond sprouts some pretty nasty racial and sexual epithets that could just possibly be Mamet´s way of conveying society´s prejudices that may or may not lie dormant beneath each and every one of us. It tackles these controversial matters head-on with nary an apology, creating a film that is unflinching in its portrayal of some characters who are both victims of circumstances and also the low dredges of society.
"Edmond" is actually pretty hard to classify into a specific genre. Conceivably, it exudes a fairy tale-like quality that is disturbingly laced with gritty urban realities of today´s world. It is, for the most part, a solo vehicle for Macy, who appears in almost every single frame of the film, as he stumbles through the night meeting both savory and unsavory characters played by a pretty impressive list of actors and actresses: Joe Mantegna, Denise Richards, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Lionel Mark Smith, Dylan Walsh and Bokeem Woodbine. Performances are great all around with Macy bringing his usual excellence to the role of Edmond Burke. And he is ably backed-up by the rest of the cast, giving director Stuart Gordon (yes, the same Stuart Gordon from "Re-Animator" fame) a broad palette and canvas to paint the movie on.
As a play, "Edmond" is perfect because of the restrictive nature of that medium--a single main character interacting with other supporting characters in bite-sized sub-acts. However, as a film, this particular theater structure becomes problematic because the story´s continuity is periodically broken up by these sub-acts without contributing much to the overall arc of the main story. I found the flow of the film in the first and second acts somewhat jarring and that the story lacks focus. It is in the third act that the film actually comes into its own and it provides a great ending to an otherwise mediocre film.
Headlining an impressive cast assembled for this movie is William H. Macy, who plays the title character, Edmond Burke. With Macy embracing this role with his usual understated professionalism, it should come as no surprise to many that the character Edmond is in essence a sad sack with a lot on his mind. The main character´s perpetual misery and even his anger comes through loud and clear on both Macy´s face and also in his demeanor throughout the film. You know, I´ve lost count of how many times we have seen Macy take on the role of losers or underdogs (examples include Bernie Lootz in "The Cooler" or Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo") with his typical character-actor enthusiasm. Like it or not, the bottom line is this: Macy´s essentially the go-to guy for those types of roles. So much so that I´m afraid Macy is already typecast without even realizing it. Poor schmuck!
Anyway, enough about Macy. Let´s jump back into the movie. "Edmond" is essentially one man´s brief but maddeningly eventful journey through a night of morbid self-discovery and perhaps even self-flagellation. Edmond Burke is a New York City white collar worker, the everyman with a dull gray suit and a briefcase, who seems resigned to his own mundane existence. Well, that is until one evening, as he unwittingly steps into a fortune teller´s shop on his way home from another long day at work. In what seems to be an unexpected turning point for Edmond (and also the film), this mysterious fortune teller (Frances Bay) informs our protagonist that, "You are not where you belong". Somehow, for reasons unknown, that innocuous sentence seems to resonate deeply with Edmond, changing his life forever.
Taking the fortune teller´s words to heart, Edmond goes home and confesses to his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he does not love her anymore and that he is leaving their marriage. Moving forward from there, Edmond becomes embroiled in an all-night quest to--as ridiculous and as crude and as simple as it sounds--get laid. Edmond´s journey that night starts at a bar and moves from a strip club to a peep show to a brothel, all the while facing various obstacles of his own making. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that Edmond´s not the sort of guy who´s comfortable roaming the city streets at night looking for action. Potentially, the hopelessly clueless Edmond is just inviting trouble as he dives into the dark underbelly of the city without a life jacket. Trouble for Edmond comes in various forms, like a couple of street hustlers running a shell game scam and a shady pimp with something else on his mind.
As Edmond goes down this path of self-destruction, he meets the sweet Glenna (Julia Stiles), a waitress at a local eatery who, against all probability, somehow finds Edmond actually interesting. However, even this one bright spot in Edmond´s night doesn´t turn out right. I won´t go into the details but it´s safe to say that Edmond´s journey is not a pleasant one and it sure doesn´t end that night. Mamet´s writing of "Edmond" explores some explicit subjects like homophobia, racism and the unflattering use of women of as sex objects. During his "rampage" Edmond sprouts some pretty nasty racial and sexual epithets that could just possibly be Mamet´s way of conveying society´s prejudices that may or may not lie dormant beneath each and every one of us. It tackles these controversial matters head-on with nary an apology, creating a film that is unflinching in its portrayal of some characters who are both victims of circumstances and also the low dredges of society.
"Edmond" is actually pretty hard to classify into a specific genre. Conceivably, it exudes a fairy tale-like quality that is disturbingly laced with gritty urban realities of today´s world. It is, for the most part, a solo vehicle for Macy, who appears in almost every single frame of the film, as he stumbles through the night meeting both savory and unsavory characters played by a pretty impressive list of actors and actresses: Joe Mantegna, Denise Richards, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Lionel Mark Smith, Dylan Walsh and Bokeem Woodbine. Performances are great all around with Macy bringing his usual excellence to the role of Edmond Burke. And he is ably backed-up by the rest of the cast, giving director Stuart Gordon (yes, the same Stuart Gordon from "Re-Animator" fame) a broad palette and canvas to paint the movie on.
As a play, "Edmond" is perfect because of the restrictive nature of that medium--a single main character interacting with other supporting characters in bite-sized sub-acts. However, as a film, this particular theater structure becomes problematic because the story´s continuity is periodically broken up by these sub-acts without contributing much to the overall arc of the main story. I found the flow of the film in the first and second acts somewhat jarring and that the story lacks focus. It is in the third act that the film actually comes into its own and it provides a great ending to an otherwise mediocre film.
David Mamet is a man who wears many hats in the entertainment business. He is an author, screenwriter ("The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Wag the Dog", "The Untouchables"), playwright ("Glengarry Glen Ross", "Edmond"), TV producer and writer ("The Unit") and even a film director ("Heist", "The Spanish Prisoner"). There seems to be nothing this man can´t do. Although Mamet has written a number of screenplays that have resulted in critically acclaimed hit movies, his latest screenwriting effort, "Edmond", ironically based on his own one-act play from 1982, comes up somewhat short. "Edmond", made for a relatively low cost of approximately $10 million, did not do well at the box office, only able to recoup just a small fraction of that budget.
Headlining an impressive cast assembled for this movie is William H. Macy, who plays the title character, Edmond Burke. With Macy embracing this role with his usual understated professionalism, it should come as no surprise to many that the character Edmond is in essence a sad sack with a lot on his mind. The main character´s perpetual misery and even his anger comes through loud and clear on both Macy´s face and also in his demeanor throughout the film. You know, I´ve lost count of how many times we have seen Macy take on the role of losers or underdogs (examples include Bernie Lootz in "The Cooler" or Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo") with his typical character-actor enthusiasm. Like it or not, the bottom line is this: Macy´s essentially the go-to guy for those types of roles. So much so that I´m afraid Macy is already typecast without even realizing it. Poor schmuck!
Anyway, enough about Macy. Let´s jump back into the movie. "Edmond" is essentially one man´s brief but maddeningly eventful journey through a night of morbid self-discovery and perhaps even self-flagellation. Edmond Burke is a New York City white collar worker, the everyman with a dull gray suit and a briefcase, who seems resigned to his own mundane existence. Well, that is until one evening, as he unwittingly steps into a fortune teller´s shop on his way home from another long day at work. In what seems to be an unexpected turning point for Edmond (and also the film), this mysterious fortune teller (Frances Bay) informs our protagonist that, "You are not where you belong". Somehow, for reasons unknown, that innocuous sentence seems to resonate deeply with Edmond, changing his life forever.
Taking the fortune teller´s words to heart, Edmond goes home and confesses to his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he does not love her anymore and that he is leaving their marriage. Moving forward from there, Edmond becomes embroiled in an all-night quest to--as ridiculous and as crude and as simple as it sounds--get laid. Edmond´s journey that night starts at a bar and moves from a strip club to a peep show to a brothel, all the while facing various obstacles of his own making. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that Edmond´s not the sort of guy who´s comfortable roaming the city streets at night looking for action. Potentially, the hopelessly clueless Edmond is just inviting trouble as he dives into the dark underbelly of the city without a life jacket. Trouble for Edmond comes in various forms, like a couple of street hustlers running a shell game scam and a shady pimp with something else on his mind.
As Edmond goes down this path of self-destruction, he meets the sweet Glenna (Julia Stiles), a waitress at a local eatery who, against all probability, somehow finds Edmond actually interesting. However, even this one bright spot in Edmond´s night doesn´t turn out right. I won´t go into the details but it´s safe to say that Edmond´s journey is not a pleasant one and it sure doesn´t end that night. Mamet´s writing of "Edmond" explores some explicit subjects like homophobia, racism and the unflattering use of women of as sex objects. During his "rampage" Edmond sprouts some pretty nasty racial and sexual epithets that could just possibly be Mamet´s way of conveying society´s prejudices that may or may not lie dormant beneath each and every one of us. It tackles these controversial matters head-on with nary an apology, creating a film that is unflinching in its portrayal of some characters who are both victims of circumstances and also the low dredges of society.
"Edmond" is actually pretty hard to classify into a specific genre. Conceivably, it exudes a fairy tale-like quality that is disturbingly laced with gritty urban realities of today´s world. It is, for the most part, a solo vehicle for Macy, who appears in almost every single frame of the film, as he stumbles through the night meeting both savory and unsavory characters played by a pretty impressive list of actors and actresses: Joe Mantegna, Denise Richards, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Lionel Mark Smith, Dylan Walsh and Bokeem Woodbine. Performances are great all around with Macy bringing his usual excellence to the role of Edmond Burke. And he is ably backed-up by the rest of the cast, giving director Stuart Gordon (yes, the same Stuart Gordon from "Re-Animator" fame) a broad palette and canvas to paint the movie on.
As a play, "Edmond" is perfect because of the restrictive nature of that medium--a single main character interacting with other supporting characters in bite-sized sub-acts. However, as a film, this particular theater structure becomes problematic because the story´s continuity is periodically broken up by these sub-acts without contributing much to the overall arc of the main story. I found the flow of the film in the first and second acts somewhat jarring and that the story lacks focus. It is in the third act that the film actually comes into its own and it provides a great ending to an otherwise mediocre film.
Headlining an impressive cast assembled for this movie is William H. Macy, who plays the title character, Edmond Burke. With Macy embracing this role with his usual understated professionalism, it should come as no surprise to many that the character Edmond is in essence a sad sack with a lot on his mind. The main character´s perpetual misery and even his anger comes through loud and clear on both Macy´s face and also in his demeanor throughout the film. You know, I´ve lost count of how many times we have seen Macy take on the role of losers or underdogs (examples include Bernie Lootz in "The Cooler" or Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo") with his typical character-actor enthusiasm. Like it or not, the bottom line is this: Macy´s essentially the go-to guy for those types of roles. So much so that I´m afraid Macy is already typecast without even realizing it. Poor schmuck!
Anyway, enough about Macy. Let´s jump back into the movie. "Edmond" is essentially one man´s brief but maddeningly eventful journey through a night of morbid self-discovery and perhaps even self-flagellation. Edmond Burke is a New York City white collar worker, the everyman with a dull gray suit and a briefcase, who seems resigned to his own mundane existence. Well, that is until one evening, as he unwittingly steps into a fortune teller´s shop on his way home from another long day at work. In what seems to be an unexpected turning point for Edmond (and also the film), this mysterious fortune teller (Frances Bay) informs our protagonist that, "You are not where you belong". Somehow, for reasons unknown, that innocuous sentence seems to resonate deeply with Edmond, changing his life forever.
Taking the fortune teller´s words to heart, Edmond goes home and confesses to his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he does not love her anymore and that he is leaving their marriage. Moving forward from there, Edmond becomes embroiled in an all-night quest to--as ridiculous and as crude and as simple as it sounds--get laid. Edmond´s journey that night starts at a bar and moves from a strip club to a peep show to a brothel, all the while facing various obstacles of his own making. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that Edmond´s not the sort of guy who´s comfortable roaming the city streets at night looking for action. Potentially, the hopelessly clueless Edmond is just inviting trouble as he dives into the dark underbelly of the city without a life jacket. Trouble for Edmond comes in various forms, like a couple of street hustlers running a shell game scam and a shady pimp with something else on his mind.
As Edmond goes down this path of self-destruction, he meets the sweet Glenna (Julia Stiles), a waitress at a local eatery who, against all probability, somehow finds Edmond actually interesting. However, even this one bright spot in Edmond´s night doesn´t turn out right. I won´t go into the details but it´s safe to say that Edmond´s journey is not a pleasant one and it sure doesn´t end that night. Mamet´s writing of "Edmond" explores some explicit subjects like homophobia, racism and the unflattering use of women of as sex objects. During his "rampage" Edmond sprouts some pretty nasty racial and sexual epithets that could just possibly be Mamet´s way of conveying society´s prejudices that may or may not lie dormant beneath each and every one of us. It tackles these controversial matters head-on with nary an apology, creating a film that is unflinching in its portrayal of some characters who are both victims of circumstances and also the low dredges of society.
"Edmond" is actually pretty hard to classify into a specific genre. Conceivably, it exudes a fairy tale-like quality that is disturbingly laced with gritty urban realities of today´s world. It is, for the most part, a solo vehicle for Macy, who appears in almost every single frame of the film, as he stumbles through the night meeting both savory and unsavory characters played by a pretty impressive list of actors and actresses: Joe Mantegna, Denise Richards, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Lionel Mark Smith, Dylan Walsh and Bokeem Woodbine. Performances are great all around with Macy bringing his usual excellence to the role of Edmond Burke. And he is ably backed-up by the rest of the cast, giving director Stuart Gordon (yes, the same Stuart Gordon from "Re-Animator" fame) a broad palette and canvas to paint the movie on.
As a play, "Edmond" is perfect because of the restrictive nature of that medium--a single main character interacting with other supporting characters in bite-sized sub-acts. However, as a film, this particular theater structure becomes problematic because the story´s continuity is periodically broken up by these sub-acts without contributing much to the overall arc of the main story. I found the flow of the film in the first and second acts somewhat jarring and that the story lacks focus. It is in the third act that the film actually comes into its own and it provides a great ending to an otherwise mediocre film.
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