Just when I go and call Christian Slater the poor man’s Jack Nicholson (Love Lies Bleeding) he goes and does a film where he shows that he does have some acting talent and I just may have eat a single serving of crow.
I hope the crow doesn’t talk to me before I chow down.
Bob McConnell (Christian Slater) is a lowly office drone that obviously has some issues. He keeps a gun in his desk drawer, a note on his fridge explaining why he committed his potential murder spree, and inanimate objects and his pet goldfish have a habit of talking to him.
One day he’s surreptitiously putting the bullets in his gun and stating which one is destined for the cranium of each of his office coworkers when he drops one and it rolls out from his cubicle. A shoe stops on top of the unspent round and Bob hears gunfire erupting all about him – but it’s not his gunfire.
He peeks over his cubicle wall and sees that his coworker Ralf (David Wells) has beat him to the punch and gone postal on the office. He shoots Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert) because he thought that she was a different bitchy coworker when she had her back turned. He’s going to deliver the coup de grace when Bob distracts him. Bob is sweet (from afar) on Vanessa and doesn’t want her dead so he unloads his remaining five bullets into Ralf.
Bob then becomes the hero of the office and media for taking down the shooter – no one realizing that Bob was about to be a shooter himself. He’s given a plumb job by the company owner (William H. Macy) but his first assignment is to deliver an envelope to the quadriplegic Vanessa. She doesn’t react in the way that is expected and asks that Bob help her end her life. However, fate has other things in mind for Bob and Vanessa.
I feel bad that I said that about Christian Slater in that other review (Love Lies Bleeding, even though I liked that film in the end) but he does seem typecast in the Jack Nicholson-type roles. Slater is nothing like you’ve ever seen him before in this role. He shaved his head to give himself a receding hairline and has a set of fake, crooked teeth.
He immerses himself in the role of the downtrodden Bob and does an excellent job in the role. It just proves that he has the gumption to tackle a good role when given the chance (but I bet those other Jack roles pay for the groceries and electric bill). I imagine that he wouldn’t have been the first thought for the role, but it’s a chance for him to shine. I do wish the film ended at a certain point instead of continuing to the conclusion that it does, but it’s not my movie (it would’ve been a happier ending than what is shot).
Cappello even mentions that it took four years to get the project off the ground and it considered making it a happier film since he wasn’t as pessimistic as he was when he wrote it, but decided to shoot it as he wrote it. It’s really a fine character study, well acted, and hopefully director Frank Cappello can be given a bigger budget in future (this one was shot on credit cards and a bank loan).
He Was a Quiet Manis presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by writer/director Frank Cappello.
Next is the 10-minute “First Look at He was a Quiet Man” which is a making of featurette, 20 minutes of deleted/alternate scenes with optional commentary by Cappello, and the 2 minute theatrical trailer.
He Was a Quiet Manis a great little film that features a great performance by Christian Slater. I can’t keep quiet about it [insert rimshot here]. I might’ve preferred a happier ending, but life doesn’t always offer us such as Bob finds out.
He Was a Quiet Man is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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