Like Double Indemnity, another film about an insurance man, or A Simple Plan, another film set in the snowy upper Midwest, this is about a scheme gone wrong, and about how men’s weaknesses can lead to their downfall. Greg Kinnear plays a Kenosha, WI, salesman who never misses an opportunity for a new client, even if the client is an elderly man (Alan Arkin) who doesn’t seem to have much income or property worth insuring. His weaknesses are gambling, professional jealousy, a blonde in a hotel lobby’s bar, and a certain lack of moral conscience. His adversaries are a mild-mannered violin broker (Bob Balaban) and a fairly unhinged (and darkly comic) security system installer (Billy Crudup).
I only noticed a couple of possible plot holes in the story, which comes from director/cowriter Jill Sprechter, last heard from in 2001’s Thirteen Conversations About One Thing. As events conspire against this antihero, I expected a certain kind of ending and got another, one that seems to make Kinnear’s character into an avuncular figure and that doesn’t really seem suitable, since he has previously displayed virtually no redeeming feature. It’s also rather clumsy in requiring the character to re-explain the entire preceding 90 minutes.
Though no doubt the final twist will delight some, and surprise most (but pay attention to the briefer voiceover at the beginning), I’d have just as soon left things more predictable. A surprise ending is, after all, a feat achieved remarkably easy so long one can make it contrived and wildly implausible. That Sprechter’s film was re-edited without her involvement or consent after playing at festivals may explain why the conclusion seems both wrong and tacked on. Ignore it and you have a decent suspense drama. Replace it and you’d have a very good one.
viewed 2/29/12 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 2/29/12
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