THE PLAYER (1992) ** There's a lot to like about this film. Tim Robbins is the perfect actor to cast as an unappealing Hollywood schmoozer because (1) he has so much personal credibility that it's difficult not to like damn near any of his characters, (2) despite this he somehow has made it to the top of that amoral world, and (3) he's a fine actor. Hollywood loves making films about itself, even if they're about how bad it is. Here Robert Altman gives Hollywood the same sort of treatment he gave the military in M*A*S*H, rather than the ritzier Nashville depiction of the world of country music. The allure of Hollywood is obvious: wealth, fame, power, mating...the darker side is less apparent, largely because most of us don't want to taint the fantasies with it. So we're reminded that the guys running things are all nauseating capitalists with few qualities to their personalities, that the entire things is shrouded in entire webs of irrelevant people, and that no one ultimately gets what they wanted in the first place. There are plenty of peripheral touches and insider jokes, the best of which are funny, real, and reek of hypocrisy....like Peter Gallagher attending Alcohol Anonymous meetings because "that's where all the deals are made." It's a bit more difficult to concede Greta Scacchi attending an impossibly dull industry function when she has gone so far to avoid the spotlight that she refuses to finish a single painting. On the other hand the viewer has to be relieved with what little plot there is (is that another insider joke? and the painfully forced romance? Whoopi Goldberg as a cop? sounds like an excuse for anything that didn't work to me-"don't you see, it's just like the real thing!") Historic palate of cameos of actors as themselves, the most striking of which are Nick Nolte enjoying a conversation during a painfully boring speech, Harry Belafonte amusing the insipid honkeys, Anjelica Huston doing lunch with her people, Lily Tomlin laying down her role over the turbulence of incompetent support, Burt Reynolds acting pompous over breakfast, and Kathy Ireland's Barbi legs in a very short skirt. Abandon all your dreams, ye who pursue them through this route! On the other hand, there are Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon...
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