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Walken Tall
In the sub-par Suicide Kings, Christopher Walken cruises over his young co-stars.
BY KIM MORGAN
243-2122 EXT. 342
Despite his Tarantino tag of "freak," Christopher Walken is an actor with range. True, he can play an expert weirdo, which Woody Allen discover in Annie Hall, butgiven the chance, he can go beyond the part of psychotic. He is an excellent dancer (Pennies from Heaven) and he can be a pretty regular guy (At Close Range, TheDeerhunter). He can even prove his range in a bad picture, which is what he does in his newest, Suicide Kings, a film that steals liberally from someone who steals liberally from others: Tarantino. The whole movie comes off as if it were conceived using the Cliff's Notes to Hip Filmmaking. It knows the terms but has no idea what they mean. Christopher Walken plays Charlie Barrett, an ex-gangster who ran the New York City mafia under the name Carlo Bartolucci. Once a feared criminal, he is now a respected, tax-paying citizen. Barrett has lost some of his street savvy. Upon meeting a group of adoring, rich, college boys, Barrett not only engages in conversation with them but also agrees to hang out with them for the night. He gets in their car and receives a big surprise. We, the viewers, do not. Through poorly staged flashbacks, we have already learned that the boys are up to no good. During a horribly choreographed car sequence, the boys knock Barrett out and kidnap him. It's all part of a twisted and complicated story that eventually becomes not only unbelievable but grating. The young actors don't help. The group consist of Brett (Jay Mohr), a control freak and psychopathic asshole; Avery (Henry Thomas), the nervous, conscience-ridden softie; Max (Sean Patrick Flanery), the low-rent heartthrob; and T.K. (Jeremy Sisto), a surgeon's son who has a substance-abuse problem with the drug he injects into Walken. Then there is Ira (Johnny Galecki), who unintentionally becomes involved in the kidnapping. Ira is more concerned about getting blood stains on his parents' carpet than the situation at hand. The whole mess was brought on by Avery's sister Lisa (Laura Harris). The victim of an unrelated kidnapping, she is being held for $2 million ransom by a couple of amateur thugs. Believing that Barrett's underworld connections can lead to Lisa's release, the friends come up with the brilliant idea of kidnapping him, cutting off his finger and duct-taping him to a chair. They can't get too far, however, as Barrett has a Houdini-like psychological power over them. With his intuitive powers (apparently these weren't working when he met the boys), Barrett figures out that one of the boys participated in Lisa's kidnapping. When he tells them, the boys become pitted against each other: Who was involved? Was it Ira in the library with a revolver, or Max in the kitchen with a beer bong? The movie grows even more absurdly convoluted, but it is interesting to watch Walken act circles around these young characters. Playing the role in an understated manner, he comes off as charming and likable, not creepy. But if he appears in any more pictures like this, Walken will run the risk of becoming the new Jack Palance--a fine actor who should be famous for Shane, not City Slickers. Let's hope we don't see Walken hosting Ripley's: Believe It or Not anytime soon. |
