Grisham and Altman: No Sidekicks for a Thriller

If there were a movie god, to whom so many fledgling actors and screenwriters regularly pray, he would not have had Robert Altman direct a John Grisham thriller like “The Gingerbread Man,” or had Clint Eastwood direct a sociological comedy like “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” He would have switched them.

Eastwood is a master at crime melodrama, and Altman is a master of atmosphere, irony and social interplay. Switching assignments wouldn’t have guaranteed that either film would turn out great, or even better than they are, but you’ve got to like the odds. As it is, we have two high-profile movies that share a professional slickness, competent performances, even the setting of Savannah, Ga., but that finally leave us mostly unmoved.

Altman, of course, didn’t have much to work with. Grisham’s novels barely have enough bone and sinew to fill out a feature-length script, and Grisham wrote “The Gingerbread Man” for the screen!

Fewer words doesn’t always mean fewer ideas, but with Grisham, it’s a safe assumption. The script was reworked by Altman, and the screenplay credit now appears as the pseudonymous Al Hayes, from an original story by John Grisham.

“The Gingerbread Man” is at least a different Grisham story. There’s no conscientious young or under-powered Southern attorney taking on corruption in the halls and boardrooms of justice, corporate America or the mob. The Southern attorney in this tale is self-absorbed, middle-aged and more than a little arrogant.

He’s Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh), a fast-talking lawyer with an upscale client list, a peevish ex-wife (Famke Janssen), with whom he shares custody of two small children, an occasionally reliable sidekick (Robert Downey Jr.) and a red Mercedes 450 SL to covet.

Leaving a victory party after winning a big case in Florida, Magruder meets a hysterical woman whose car has just been stolen. He gives her a ride home, where they find her car, she gives him a hard luck story about her crazy father, they spend the night together, and he leaves, without even getting her name.

But he needn’t worry. That next day, she shows up in his office, with legal questions about having her father committed, and no sooner does he learn that her name is Mallory Doss than he is drawn into a situation that can lead to love, double-cross or a little of both.

The problem with having a good director working with mundane material is that you’re inevitably promised more than you get. The first half of “The Gingerbread Man,” as Altman takes us through a nasty tropical storm leading to a hurricane aptly named Geraldo, is compelling groundwork for a story that eventually turns on deadly cliches. He creates tension that’s relieved only by disbelief.

Branagh affects a convincing Southern accent, but he’s a classically trained actor whose stage forcefulness doesn’t carry over to the screen. Magruder isn’t a likable hero, even though his motivation changes dramatically from lust and professional vanity to paternal panic after his children are kidnapped. And Branagh doesn’t have the star voltage to overcome that.

The underused Embeth Davidtz, Ralph Fiennes’ Jewish sex slave in “Schindler’s List,” has the most complex role and makes the best of it. She keeps Mallory wrapped in mystery and sensuality from her opening scene. But as that mystery begins to solve itself, the life is drained out of her performance.

Besides Downey, who enlivens his few brief scenes, the able supporting cast includes Robert Duvall as Mallory’s seriously unstable father, Tom Berenger as her roughhewn ex-husband and Daryl Hannah, almost unrecognizable as Magruder’s redheaded associate.

“The Gingerbread Man” is beautifully photographed by China’s Changwei Gu, who’s worked with Chen Kaige (on “Farewell, My Concubine”) and Zhang Yimou (on “Red Sorghum” and “Ju Dou”). Altman had a fine time composing difficult shots, through screens, bushes and sheets of rain, and Chungwei’s images, sometimes delicate, sometimes harsh, stick with you long after you’ve forgotten their context.

* MPAA rating: R for some sexuality, violence and language. Times guidelines: relatively mild violence, but the language and sexuality is strong.

‘The Gingerbread Man’

Kenneth Branagh: Rick Magruder

Embeth Davidtz: Mallory Doss

Daryl Hannah: Lois

Mae Whitman: Libby

Robert Downey Jr.: Clyde

Robert Duvall: Dixon Doss

Tom Berenger: Peter Randall

Polygram Filmed Entertainment/Ascot Elite Entertainment Group (Switzerland). Executive producers Todd R. Baker, Mark Burg, Glenn Tobias. Producer Jeremy Tannenbaum. Director by Robert Altman. Written by John Grisham. Cinematography Changwei Gu. Music Mark Isham. Production design Stephen Altman. Costumes Dona Granata. Film editing Geraldine Peroni. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

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* In general release.