Director: Mike Figgis
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Wilson, Dana Eskelson, Christopher Plummer

- Reviewed by Jennifer

Everything Linda said about Cold Creek Manor is true. It is a painfully formulaic movie whose writer apparently learned everything he knows about dialogue from NBC movies of the week based on Danielle Steele novels. I imagine him struggling with the script, turning to his wife and asking in utter bafflement,

"What's that thing people say at the pool?"
"Come on in, the water's fine?"
"Yes! That's what I was trying to think of!"

The result is a movie full of characters so bland they make oatmeal seem fun, yet somehow this poor piece of work found its way into the brilliant hands of one Mr. Christopher Plummer. He is clearly a man who knows how to make lemonade when life deals him lemons, and I feel it is unfair to ignore the one performance that shines out in the pile of stupid that is Cold Creek Manor. He is the only consolation to the fact that we cannot somehow slap the other characters through the screen.

As the former patriarch of Cold Creek Manor, we find Christopher Plummer stuck in a nursing home bed looking more like Jack Elam than Captain Von Trapp. Dennis Quaid, the allegedly smart documentary filmmaker, goes to visit him sporting girl bangs and a look so blank you'd swear he had an actual lobotomy to get into character. Half asleep, Christopher Plummer mistakes him for his son, then opens his twinkling, intelligent eyes to reveal that this loopy old man is easily the sharpest person in the room. A litany of more obscenities than he has uttered in his entire career then flows from his lips as he describes his vile relatives to the clueless Dennis Quaid. He abruptly demands a chocolate cherry and turns the act of chewing it into pure art.

I would guess that Mr. Plummer has a total of ten minutes of screen time, but they are the only ten minutes of the film that could actually be called interesting. To be great in the company of greatness is simply to rise to the occasion, but to be great in the presence of morons is a show of true character. Kudos to Christopher Plummer, the only smart person to show up on the set of one sorry movie.

Official Movie Site

Agree? Disagree? Go to the Forum!  |  Back to Video/DVD

Home | Currently Playing | For Rent | Video Obsession 
Movie Forum | Guestbook | Links | "Get to know us!"

©2004 Moviepie e-mail us