Film Reviews

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Drew Barrymore
• Details: US / 119 minutes / (15PG).

The directorial debut of George Clooney, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is based on the autobiography of game show host and self-confessed inventor of "trash TV", Chuck Barris, and is a highly stylised, slick and compelling piece of work. In his "unauthorised autobiography", Barris claimed that as well as being responsible for the likes of the profoundly awful The Gong Show, he also moonlighted as an assassin for the CIA, with over 30 sanctioned kills to his credit. Is he telling the truth, or is Barris so self-loathing that anything - even claiming he's a hired gun - preferably to the life he was living? Thanks to the skewered adaptation by Charlie Kaufman, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind never passes absolute judgement on its protagonist nor implicitly states that he was off his rocker. Instead what we get is an engrossing, nostalgic and occasionally rather funny take on an era of tacky television and one man's destructive obsession with being remembered as something other than what he was. Clooney's inexperience behind the camera means that he's sometimes prone to cramming too much into a scene and eagerly over directs the material. But it's a small complaint and shouldn't stop you from seeing this offbeat, entertaining piece of work.

Review by Garreth Murphy