May 11–18, 2000

movie shorts

The Big Kahuna

Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and newcomer Peter Facinelli are all superb as industrial-lubricant salesmen attending a convention in Wichita in this adaptation of Roger Rueff’s play Hospitality Suite. Their interplay is sharp and fairly clever, at least in the first act, when the goal is to introduce the characters — in particular Spacey’s Larry, who’s intent on tearing into Bob (Facinelli) for his pious innocence and Phil (DeVito) for his oversights (the cheese ball where there should be shrimp; the coat rack that clutters up the suite). Spacey’s performance seems slightly stagey, until one realizes that that’s the point: It’s Bob, not Spacey, who’s performing the role of asshole salesman. In the second half, we’re supposed to start seeing the characters for who they truly are, but here the film starts losing its focus. The ethical dilemma to which the script thinks it’s building fails to compel. John Swanbeck is a seasoned stage director, and he brings out fine performances from his players. But his first movie struggles with some cinematic basics: The slow-motion sequences we see each time we leave the suite are self-important and ineffective; the Windham Hill-esque soundtrack is inappropriate (and it’s just plain odd to close with "Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" — you know, that Mazda ad song). Everything done to adapt this play into a film, not least the silly fantasy sequences meant to serve as a bridge over the missing intermission, only weakens the script. It probably should have stayed on the stage.

—Stuart Semmel