I'd
like to say that I understand what Short Cuts is all about and
Altman's intent on this vignette style film featuring several
different interconnected storylines that jump between each other every
minute or two. Frankly, I don't. However, whether or not
there is any message, doesn't exactly keep me from finding it
interesting and entertaining enough to make it enjoyable, and often
absorbing.
Robert Altman's (The Player,
Popeye) film is loosely adapted from
the writings of Raymond Carver, who wrote short stories that dealt
with ordinary people and ordinary lives. Essentially, the
stories have no outward purpose save to capture a moment, a feeling,
or an interesting situation that provokes some emotion or thought, but
lets the reader experience it as written and make what he will of it.
If Altman intended to do the same with his film, then he has
succeeded. Short Cuts did move me emotionally at times,
it made me think in others, but at no time did I ever think I
understood what any particular story's purpose was. Perhaps that
is the intent. Life is random, confusing, meaningless...but we
take it for what it is, ups or downs, and just move on.
I
could spend an inordinate amount of time on the plot, put with so many
stories and characters, I'm going to just give the general gist of
things. Los Angeles is being sprayed constantly with chemicals
in order to try to wipe out the dreaded medfly, while people around
the Los Angeles area try to cope with personal crises of their own.
Death and infidelity are the main subjects Short Cuts delves
into, following 22 different people and interconnecting their stories
in small ways to form a greater picture.
Looking back at Altman's work, it can clearly be seen as the successor
to Grand Canyon and predecessor to
Magnolia, with
their multi-character, multi-story construction, each interwoven to
provide some semblance of cohesion. However, Short Cuts
is a much more ambivalent work, not really having a great deal of
underlying purpose as to why these stories needed to be told together.
If it's a conglomeration of Raymond Carver stories reworked into a
three-hour movie, then the joining of the stories is probably more as
a way of tying things together to economize characters, rather than an
attempt at a common thematic goal.
Some
of the stories are amusing, some tragic, but all are interesting in
their own way. There's an impressive array of actors here,
although not necessarily studded with superstars. The acting is
solid, but not outstanding, and the same goes for the direction by
Altman. There was the potential for a tour de force venture
here, but I don't think Altman was trying to hit a home run. He
just wanted to bring together these interesting stories for our
perusal, offering little in the way of personal comment (very unlike
Grand Canyon and Magnolia, which were decidedly
moralistic styles of filmmaking).
Short Cuts is primarily recommended for fans of Altman, or any of
the individual members of the ensemble cast, and even if none of them
get much screen time, their performances are all memorable enough to
stand out. It's smart, funny, sad, and intelligent, and
despite the overriding message seeming mostly intangible, it still
manages to offer enough food for thought to more then justify its
three hour running time.
