Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Encyclopedia
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a 2002 biographical
spy film
depicting the life of popular game show
host and producer Chuck Barris
, who claimed to have also been an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). Sam Rockwell
portrays Barris and the film was directed by actor George Clooney
and written by Charlie Kaufman
.
Columbia Pictures
had planned to produce a film adaptation
of Barris' memoir of the same name in the late 1980s. When the film rights
were purchased by producer Andrew Lazar
, Charlie Kaufman
was commissioned to write a new script, which attracted various A-list
actors and filmmakers to the project. After Bryan Singer
's version of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Johnny Depp
in the lead role was canceled in February 2001, George Clooney took over directing duties.
Barris remained heavily involved in production in an attempt to portray the film from his point of view. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced actresses Drew Barrymore
and Julia Roberts
to lower their asking prices. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was released with respectful reviews from critics, but bombed at the box office
. Rockwell, in particular, was praised for his acting, and won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival
.
' (Sam Rockwell
) sole purpose through his teenage years (Michael Céra
) in Philadelphia concerns promiscuity
, but he is unsuccessful. Inspired by a television advertisement, he moves to Manhattan
to become an NBC page
. He dreams of becoming famous in television, but is eventually fired. Chuck moves back to Philadelphia and becomes Dick Clark's personal assistant on American Bandstand
in 1961. There, he writes the successful "Palisades Park" song
with Freddy Cannon
and falls in love with a woman named Penny Pacino (Drew Barrymore
). Chuck is given permission to pitch the concept for The Dating Game
at the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC); he receives $7,500 to create a television pilot
for the studio. However, ABC abandons The Dating Game in favor of Hootenanny. Chuck then struggles with his life and ends up in bar fights. He is noticed by Jim Byrd (George Clooney
), a CIA
agent who recruits Chuck as an assassin.
Returning from a mission in Mexico, Chuck finds that Penny has become a hippie
. Meanwhile, ABC decides to greenlight
The Dating Game, and by 1967 the TV show is a phenomenon. Chuck takes another mission for the CIA in Helsinki
, Finland
, where he meets gorgeous operative Patricia Watson (Julia Roberts
). Chuck finds more success back home when The Newlywed Game
goes on air. He and Penny decide to move to Los Angeles
into a house, but Chuck is cautious of marriage, much to the dismay of Penny. The journey in Barris' life is tied in to the story of Thomas Carlyle
's main character in Sartor Resartus
, Teufelsdröckh, and references to this parallel are made throughout the film. In 1970, Jim convinces Chuck to go on another mission in West Berlin
to assassinate communist Hans Colbert. There, Chuck is introduced to German-American agent Keeler (Rutger Hauer) and is held captive by the KGB
for weeks.
In 1976 Los Angeles
, Chuck creates The Gong Show
and becomes even more famous as its host. He also is criticized for being instrumental in the decline of quality television. Meanwhile, Keeler is murdered and Jim warns Chuck of a mole
in the agency. Chuck's TV shows are canceled due to poor ratings and his relationship with Penny becomes complex. One night, Chuck finds Jim in his backyard pool, sitting atop the diving board. Jim reveals to Chuck why he "fit the profile" for the CIA's recruitment policy of assassins. Jim cites details from Chuck's early childhood which seem to predestine him to become a killer. During the conversation Jim mysteriously dies, which leads to Chuck becoming traumatized with past reflections of his CIA and television career.
After almost having a nervous breakdown
on his own show, he recluse
s himself in a New York City hotel. Penny manages to find him there, but tries in vain to convince him to return to California and get married. Chuck finally leaves his room and confronts Patricia in Boston
. There, he finds that she is the mole Jim warned him about. Chuck kills Patricia and begins to write his autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He finally decides to marry Penny. After the ceremony, he confesses to her his double life as a CIA agent and assassin, but she merely laughs, assuming he is making a joke, and he decides not to correct her. In 2002, he prepares for an interview for the film adaptation of his autobiography.
Barris, Dick Clark, Jim Lange
, Murray Langston (The Unknown Comic
), Jaye P. Morgan
, and Gene Patton (Gene Gene the Dancing Machine
) are featured in the film through interviews that fulcrum the storyline through self-reference
events.
first sold the film rights
of his "unauthorized autobiography" to Columbia Pictures
in the late-1980s. Columbia president Dawn Steel
greenlight
ed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Jim McBride
directing. McBride offered the lead role to Richard Dreyfuss
, who refused to read the script because he believed Barris' morbid humor
was distasteful. The project was abandoned at Columbia when Steel was fired in 1989. Producer Andrew Lazar
optioned the film rights from Columbia in 1997 and set Confessions of a Dangerous Mind at Warner Bros.
Pictures that same year. Charlie Kaufman
entered discussions to write a new screenplay in June 1997 and finished his first draft later that year. Barris gave positive feedback to Kaufman's script and Curtis Hanson
instantly agreed to direct with Sean Penn
in the lead role and George Clooney
and Drew Barrymore
attached to co-star.
Hanson eventually dropped out, but with the financial success of My Best Friend's Wedding
(1997), P. J. Hogan
entered discussions with Warner Bros. to direct in January 1998. Mike Myers
signed on to replace Sean Penn, who vacated the lead role. However, negotiations with Hogan fell through; Sam Mendes
, David Fincher
and Darren Aronofsky
all became interested in taking over the directors position. Fincher and Myers were fast track
ing production for Confessions in April 2000 but Fincher dropped out and, by that October, Brian De Palma
was attached to direct with Renaissance Pictures
co-financing. Later that month, Warner Bros. put the project in turnaround, and Myers lost interest. Russell Crowe
, Kevin Spacey
and Edward Norton
had also been attached to the film in the early development stages.
In December 2000, Ben Stiller
was in discussions to star as Chuck Barris with Bryan Singer
directing and Clooney still aboard. However, Stiller was forced to vacate Confessions due to scheduling conflicts with Zoolander
(2001) and The Royal Tenenbaums
(2001). Although Singer was interested in Sam Rockwell
in the lead role, the director cast Johnny Depp
to replace Stiller and commenced pre-production
in January 2001 on a planned $35 million budget. Renaissance Pictures was holding international distribution rights, but the filmmakers still needed more financing as well as a studio to cover distribution duties in the United States.
Grosvenor Park
was interested in co-financing with Renaissance, but the next month (February 2001), Confessions was once again stalled in development. Miramax Films
had been negotiating for domestic rights, but difficulties arose when Miramax also wanted to cover international rights. Renaissance was also unable to close the financing in time to accommodate both the "production insurance" deadline and the 65-day shooting schedule
, which was set to primarily take place in Montreal
and British Columbia
, Canada. Artisan Entertainment
then became interested in covering North American distribution rights, but dropped out after the bid went over $8 million. Johnny Depp eventually went to work on other films.
, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was rejuvenated with actor George Clooney taking over the director's position. Miramax Films
agreed to cover distribution duties and co-finance the film. In the end, funding for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind came from Miramax, Clooney's own Section Eight Productions
, Village Roadshow Pictures
, producer Andrew Lazar
's Mad Chance, Allied Filmmakers
and The Kushner-Locke Company
. Clooney explained, "I thought if I came on board as a director, for scale, and was able to bring everybody else on inexpensively, if I could get the film back down to $30 million, then I was going to be able to get the film made. That was a big part of my pitch to Harvey Weinstein
at Miramax."
Because Confessions was his directing debut, Clooney took inspiration from friends Steven Soderbergh
and the Coen brothers
for his filmmaking style. Writer Charlie Kaufman
said he was dissatisfied with the way Clooney treated the screenplay. "I spent a lot of time working on the script," he explained, "but I don't think he was interested in the things I was interested in. I've moved on and I don't have any animosity towards Clooney, but it's a movie I don't really relate to." Clooney acknowledged that Kaufman's original script contained "really funky scenes that would never reach the greenlight of being a studio film." A drug addiction subplot was removed based on Barris' request for historical authenticity.
Clooney was adamant that Barris become heavily involved during production in an attempt to portray the film from his point of view. Barris was so enthusiastic with Clooney's work on the film that he began writing Bad Grass Never Dies (ISBN 978-0-7867-1379-0), the sequel to Confessions; Miramax also owns the film rights to Bad Grass. Barris filmed cameo appearance
s of himself during the shoot in Canada and taped a voice-over
in Clooney's house.
When asked about Barris' claim of being a CIA assassin, Clooney commented, "I don't know how much I believed it. I didn't want to officially ask him, because I didn't want him to say, 'I made it up.' I wanted to tell the story and I thought, how interesting if it was all made up, why someone as wealthy and as successful as Chuck Barris, would have to do that. I thought that was an interesting person to explore, and that's what we wanted to do with the film." Clooney acknowledged that his upbringing with father Nick Clooney
had a great bearing on his choice of depicting the 1960/70s game show
s. "My father had a game show when I was growing up called The Money Maze. I know what those sets look like. I showed the guy how to do cue card
s. I grew up on them," the director reflected, "and knew what it looked like and smelled like. And I know something about some of the trappings of fame, so I thought I had a unique take on it."
s and everything I still wasn't able to get Sam Rockwell
," Clooney reflected. Rockwell had always been Clooney's first choice ever since they worked together on Welcome to Collinwood
(2002). Both Clooney and Barris also believed Rockwell shared an uncanny resemblance to Barris. "I didn’t want someone too famous to play the role," the director reasoned. "In my opinion, you cannot have famous people playing famous people. It doesn’t work. Sam was the guy for the part, ready to break and hadn’t yet."
Prior to his audition, Rockwell "immersed" himself in the role by watching episodes of The Gong Show
in an attempt to impress the filmmakers. "I went to LA [and] did an old-fashioned screen test, like a real Scarlett O'Hara
-type screen test, which you know they don't really do anymore," the actor remembered. For research, Rockwell spent two-and-a-half-months with Barris. "We went to coffee shops and dinner and movies, took walks, went to the zoo, I even filmed him," Rockwell explained. "I had him tape my lines in a tape recorder, and I listened to that to get his voice down."
Clooney cast Julia Roberts
as the mysterious CIA agent Patricia Watson due to their positive working relationship in Ocean's Eleven
(2001). Her role was originally set for Nicole Kidman
, who dropped out over scheduling conflicts with The Hours
. After Rockwell's casting Confessions was once again briefly postponed; Miramax did not greenlight
the film until Roberts signed on. Clooney commented, "Julia really helped me. Her doing the part made it possible for me to cast Sam Rockwell. He can't drive a $28 million film, but Julia certainly can." Renee Zellweger
and Gwyneth Paltrow
were considered for the Penny Pacino role, which eventually went to Drew Barrymore
.
Miramax was unsure of Clooney's decision to cast Rockwell over other famous actors such as Robert Downey, Jr. and Ben Stiller
. Clooney convinced the studio into giving him the right of final cut privilege
and casting Rockwell in exchange for first look deal
s on Full Frontal
(2002) and other low-budget films from Clooney's Section Eight Productions
. Clooney also agreed to cameo in Miramax's Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
(2002) so Rockwell could be cast. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced Roberts and Barrymore to lower their asking prices.
and Montreal
. The Playboy Mansion
scene was shot in early-April at Los Angeles, California; the remainder two weeks of production took place around the Mexico – United States border. Filming for Confessions ended in late-April 2002.
Clooney and cinematographer
Newton Thomas Sigel
used various techniques when portraying the different decades of a Barris' life. "We thought in order to go back in time, most people remember things through film," Clooney reasoned. "I don't remember the 1950s – I wasn't around for them – I know the 50s through Technicolor
. Not Technicolor as it was shot, but Technicolor as it has faded now." The filmmakers studied various films and magazine issues of that decade for inspiration on the color palette. Racking focus
es were highly stylized for scenes set in the 1960s, similar to the Spaghetti Western
s of that era. Hand-held camera
s were used for scenes set in the 1970s, a homage
to the films of Sidney Lumet
, Mike Nichols
and Alan J. Pakula
, primarily Klute
(1971), Carnal Knowledge
(1971) and The Parallax View
(1974) All That Jazz
also influenced Clooney's direction.
Clooney commented that post-production
for Confessions was stressful because he was simultaneously acting in Solaris
(2002).
with the release of the film, Miramax Books
republished Barris' 1984 book. The film premiered out-of-competition at the May 2002 Cannes Film Festival
before Miramax Films
gave it a limited release
in the United States on December 31, 2002; the wide release
came on January 23, 2003. The film was a box office bomb
; grossing only $33.01 million, $16 million domestically and $17.01 million from foreign markets. It also suffered poor sales in its September 2003 Region 1 DVD
release. The DVD includes over 20 minutes of deleted scene
s, Rockwell's three screen test
s, a short documentary titled The Real Chuck Barris, Clooney's audio commentary
, and a making-of
featurette.
, 79% of the reviewers enjoyed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with an average rating of 7.1/10. The film was more balanced with the 30 reviews in Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critics" poll, receiving an 83% approval rating and a 7.4 score. By comparison, Metacritic
calculated an average score of 67/100, based on 33 reviews. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival
on February 10, 2003. Sam Rockwell won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
and George Clooney was nominated the Golden Bear
, but lost to Michael Winterbottom
of In This World
.
Roger Ebert
gave Confessions of a Dangerous Mind a positive review. "George Clooney's directorial debut is not only intriguing as a story but great to look at," Ebert continued, "a marriage of bright pop images from the 1960s and 1970s and dark, cold spyscapes that seem to have wandered in from John le Carré
." Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone magazine believed the film carried a perfect balance of dark humor and psychological drama. "Clooney tackles a far-reaching absurdist fantasy with Barris as a paradigm
of paranoia," Travers reviewed. "He wisely hooks up with talent he worked with as an actor: cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel
, from Three Kings (1999) and editor Stephen Mirrione
from Ocean's Eleven
(2001)."
Mick LaSalle
from the San Francisco Chronicle
wrote that "there may be more entertaining and less problematic movies, but Confessions of a Dangerous Mind has something about it that hangs in there, working on the mind like a dog gnawing on a table leg. The movie makes a case for itself through sheer oddness and perversity. I'm not sure Confessions is a good movie, but I am sure I like it." Owen Gleiberman
, writing in Entertainment Weekly
, observed that "Sam Rockwell is handsome in a rumpled, slightly goofy rabbit-toothed way, but he doesn't really have the look, or aura, of a movie star
," Glieberman stated. "He's more like a weirdly sincere space cadet, babbling to himself with puppyish befuddlement, breaking into funky soft dance moves that look as if he's been doing them in his bedroom since he was 8. All of which makes him an inspired choice to play Chuck Barris."
Kenneth Turan
of the Los Angeles Times
gave a negative review. He disliked the characterization of Chuck Barris and commented that "with its multiplicity of over-stylized looks and slick gimmicks, Dangerous Mind was doubtless more stimulating to direct than it will be for audiences to experience." Internet reviewer James Berardinelli
wrote a mixed critique. "George Clooney is eager to show how much he has learned at the hands of the A-list filmmakers he has toiled under. So we get a style that is about 50% Steven Soderbergh
and 50% Coen brothers
. Sometimes it works, but mostly it comes across as too artsy, with all sorts of bizarre angles and unusual shots."
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
spy film
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
depicting the life of popular game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
host and producer Chuck Barris
Chuck Barris
Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show producer, film director and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA.-Early career:Barris was born in Oakland, New...
, who claimed to have also been an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA). Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
portrays Barris and the film was directed by actor George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and written by Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
.
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
had planned to produce a film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Barris' memoir of the same name in the late 1980s. When the film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
were purchased by producer Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar is an American film producer and graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.-Filmography:*Assassins *Unforgettable *Bound *10 Things I Hate About You...
, Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
was commissioned to write a new script, which attracted various A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
actors and filmmakers to the project. After Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
's version of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
in the lead role was canceled in February 2001, George Clooney took over directing duties.
Barris remained heavily involved in production in an attempt to portray the film from his point of view. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced actresses Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
and Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
to lower their asking prices. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was released with respectful reviews from critics, but bombed at the box office
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
. Rockwell, in particular, was praised for his acting, and won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
Silver Bear for Best Actor
The Silver Bear for Best Actor is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actor.- Awards :- External links :*...
at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
.
Plot
Chuck BarrisChuck Barris
Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show producer, film director and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA.-Early career:Barris was born in Oakland, New...
' (Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
) sole purpose through his teenage years (Michael Céra
Michael Cera
Michael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor best known for his roles in Arrested Development, Youth in Revolt, Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Juno. Cera received the 2008 Canadian Comedy Award for best male performance for his work in Superbad.-Early...
) in Philadelphia concerns promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
, but he is unsuccessful. Inspired by a television advertisement, he moves to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
to become an NBC page
NBC page
An NBC page is a person usually in his or her early twenties working in various departments of the NBC television network during a one-year period as a training ground for careers in television broadcasting and entertainment...
. He dreams of becoming famous in television, but is eventually fired. Chuck moves back to Philadelphia and becomes Dick Clark's personal assistant on American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
in 1961. There, he writes the successful "Palisades Park" song
Palisades Park (song)
"Palisades Park" is a song written by Chuck Barris and recorded by Freddy Cannon. A tribute to New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park, the song is an up-tempo tune led by a distinctive organ part. It also incorporates amusement park sound effects....
with Freddy Cannon
Freddy Cannon
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...
and falls in love with a woman named Penny Pacino (Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
). Chuck is given permission to pitch the concept for The Dating Game
The Dating Game
The Dating Game is an ABC television show that first aired on December 20, 1965 and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s...
at the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC); he receives $7,500 to create a television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
for the studio. However, ABC abandons The Dating Game in favor of Hootenanny. Chuck then struggles with his life and ends up in bar fights. He is noticed by Jim Byrd (George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
), a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent who recruits Chuck as an assassin.
Returning from a mission in Mexico, Chuck finds that Penny has become a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
. Meanwhile, ABC decides to greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
The Dating Game, and by 1967 the TV show is a phenomenon. Chuck takes another mission for the CIA in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, where he meets gorgeous operative Patricia Watson (Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
). Chuck finds more success back home when The Newlywed Game
The Newlywed Game
The Newlywed Game is an American television game show that pits newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know each other. The program, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir The Newlywed Game is an American...
goes on air. He and Penny decide to move to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
into a house, but Chuck is cautious of marriage, much to the dismay of Penny. The journey in Barris' life is tied in to the story of Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
's main character in Sartor Resartus
Sartor Resartus
Thomas Carlyle's major work, Sartor Resartus , first published as a serial in 1833-34, purported to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh , author of a tome entitled "Clothes: their Origin and Influence" , but was actually a poioumenon...
, Teufelsdröckh, and references to this parallel are made throughout the film. In 1970, Jim convinces Chuck to go on another mission in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
to assassinate communist Hans Colbert. There, Chuck is introduced to German-American agent Keeler (Rutger Hauer) and is held captive by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
for weeks.
In 1976 Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Chuck creates The Gong Show
The Gong Show
The Gong Show is an amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976 through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976–1980 and 1988–1989. The show was produced by Chuck Barris, who also served...
and becomes even more famous as its host. He also is criticized for being instrumental in the decline of quality television. Meanwhile, Keeler is murdered and Jim warns Chuck of a mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
in the agency. Chuck's TV shows are canceled due to poor ratings and his relationship with Penny becomes complex. One night, Chuck finds Jim in his backyard pool, sitting atop the diving board. Jim reveals to Chuck why he "fit the profile" for the CIA's recruitment policy of assassins. Jim cites details from Chuck's early childhood which seem to predestine him to become a killer. During the conversation Jim mysteriously dies, which leads to Chuck becoming traumatized with past reflections of his CIA and television career.
After almost having a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
on his own show, he recluse
Recluse
A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society, often close to nature. The word is from the Latin recludere, which means "shut up" or "sequester." There are many potential reasons for becoming a recluse: a personal philosophy that rejects consumer society; a...
s himself in a New York City hotel. Penny manages to find him there, but tries in vain to convince him to return to California and get married. Chuck finally leaves his room and confronts Patricia in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. There, he finds that she is the mole Jim warned him about. Chuck kills Patricia and begins to write his autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He finally decides to marry Penny. After the ceremony, he confesses to her his double life as a CIA agent and assassin, but she merely laughs, assuming he is making a joke, and he decides not to correct her. In 2002, he prepares for an interview for the film adaptation of his autobiography.
Cast
- Sam RockwellSam RockwellSam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
(Michael CeraMichael CeraMichael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor best known for his roles in Arrested Development, Youth in Revolt, Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Juno. Cera received the 2008 Canadian Comedy Award for best male performance for his work in Superbad.-Early...
, young) as Chuck BarrisChuck BarrisCharles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show producer, film director and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA.-Early career:Barris was born in Oakland, New...
, a successful game showGame showA game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
host and producer who carries a secret life as a CIA assassin - Drew BarrymoreDrew BarrymoreDrew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
as Penny Pacino; she first meets Chuck in the 1960s and stays as his girlfriend for years - George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
as Jim Byrd, a CIA agent who recruits Chuck in the position as an assassin - Julia RobertsJulia RobertsJulia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
as Patricia Watson, a gorgeous and seductive agent - Rutger Hauer as Keeler, a German-American spy and World War II veteran who befriends Chuck
- Jerry WeintraubJerry WeintraubJerry Weintraub is an American film producer and former chairman and CEO of United Artists. He now lives in Palm Desert, California.-Life and career:...
as Larry Goldberg, the President of the American Broadcasting CompanyAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) - Robert John Burke as Instructor Jenks, an eccentric FCC instructor
- Michael EnsignMichael Ensign- Early life :Ensign was born in Safford, Arizona and was raised in both the United States and England. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and spent the first ten years of his professional career working in the theatre in Britain.- Career :...
as Simon Oliver, a British CIA supervisor who is the first to fall victim to Patricia's murders - Maggie GyllenhaalMaggie GyllenhaalMargaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...
as Debbie, a stagehandStagehandA stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their duties include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.-Types of stagehand:...
who works with Chuck on the set for American BandstandAmerican BandstandAmerican Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer... - Rachelle LefevreRachelle LefèvreRachelle Lefevre is a Canadian actress. She has starred in the television series Big Wolf on Campus and had recurring roles in What About Brian, Boston Legal, and Swingtown. She played the vampire Victoria in the first two films of the Twilight saga, before being replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard...
as Tuvia - Kristen Wilson as Loretta
- Daniel ZacapaDaniel ZacapaDaniel Zacapa is an American trilingual actor, community activist, and ex-class A San Francisco Giants baseball player. He played the role of Detective Taylor in the 1995 David Fincher film, Seven...
as Renda - Emilio RiveraEmilio Rivera-Early life:Rivera was born in San Antonio, Texas of Mexican descent. He is the oldest child of four brothers and three sisters. As a young boy, he and his family moved to Elysian Valley, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.-Acting career:...
as Benitez - Carlos Carrasco as Brazioni
- Richard KindRichard KindRichard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...
as Casting executive - Brad PittBrad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
and Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
(cameosCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
) as The Dating Game bachelors, Brad and Matt - Akiva GoldsmanAkiva GoldsmanAkiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
(uncredited) as Playboy party guest
Barris, Dick Clark, Jim Lange
Jim Lange
Jim Lange is a former American game show host and disc jockey. He was particularly well known to listeners in the San Francisco and Los Angeles radio markets with stints at several stations in both markets, racking up over 45 years on the air...
, Murray Langston (The Unknown Comic
The Unknown Comic
The Unknown Comic is the stage name of Canadian-American actor and stand-up comic Murray Langston , best known for his comic performances on The Gong Show, usually appearing with a paper bag over his head....
), Jaye P. Morgan
Jaye P. Morgan
Mary Margaret Morgan , known professionally as Jaye P. Morgan, is a retired popular music American singer, actress and game show panelist.-Early life:...
, and Gene Patton (Gene Gene the Dancing Machine
Gene Gene the Dancing Machine
Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, aka Eugene Patton , was a member of the stage crew and occasional performer on The Gong Show. Gene was the first African-American member of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, Local 33.He was one of several amateur performers who would "warm...
) are featured in the film through interviews that fulcrum the storyline through self-reference
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
events.
Development
Chuck BarrisChuck Barris
Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show producer, film director and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA.-Early career:Barris was born in Oakland, New...
first sold the film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
of his "unauthorized autobiography" to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in the late-1980s. Columbia president Dawn Steel
Dawn Steel
Dawn Steel was one of the first women to run a major Hollywood film studio. She was born as Dawn Spielberg in New York City and raised in the suburb Great Neck, Long Island. Her father changed the family name.- Career :Dawn Steel attended New York University but did not graduate...
greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
ed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Jim McBride
Jim McBride
Jim McBride is an American television and film director, film producer and screenwriter.-Filmography:* David Holzman's Diary * My Girlfriend's Wedding...
directing. McBride offered the lead role to Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
, who refused to read the script because he believed Barris' morbid humor
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
was distasteful. The project was abandoned at Columbia when Steel was fired in 1989. Producer Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar is an American film producer and graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.-Filmography:*Assassins *Unforgettable *Bound *10 Things I Hate About You...
optioned the film rights from Columbia in 1997 and set Confessions of a Dangerous Mind at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Pictures that same year. Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
entered discussions to write a new screenplay in June 1997 and finished his first draft later that year. Barris gave positive feedback to Kaufman's script and Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson
Curtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
instantly agreed to direct with Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
in the lead role and George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
attached to co-star.
Hanson eventually dropped out, but with the financial success of My Best Friend's Wedding
My Best Friend's Wedding
My Best Friend's Wedding is a 1997 romantic comedy film directed by P. J. Hogan. It stars Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney, Rupert Everett, and Philip Bosco.The film received mostly positive reviews from critics...
(1997), P. J. Hogan
P. J. Hogan
Paul John "P. J." Hogan is an AACTA Awards winning Australian film director and a writer in the film and television genre.Hogan was born in Brisbane, Australia...
entered discussions with Warner Bros. to direct in January 1998. Mike Myers
Mike Myers (actor)
Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...
signed on to replace Sean Penn, who vacated the lead role. However, negotiations with Hogan fell through; Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
, David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
and Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
all became interested in taking over the directors position. Fincher and Myers were fast track
Fast Track
Fast Track is an informal English phrase meaning "the quickest and most direct route to achievement of a goal, as in competing for professional advancement".Fast Track may also refer to:* Fast Track, a FoxBusiness.com show hosted by Anna Gilligan...
ing production for Confessions in April 2000 but Fincher dropped out and, by that October, Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
was attached to direct with Renaissance Pictures
Renaissance Pictures
Renaissance Pictures is an American film production company. Founded by director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert and actor Bruce Campbell, with help from publicist Irvin Shapiro, on August 10, 1979, to produce their film The Evil Dead, along with its sequels Evil Dead II and Army of...
co-financing. Later that month, Warner Bros. put the project in turnaround, and Myers lost interest. Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
, Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
had also been attached to the film in the early development stages.
In December 2000, Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
was in discussions to star as Chuck Barris with Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
directing and Clooney still aboard. However, Stiller was forced to vacate Confessions due to scheduling conflicts with Zoolander
Zoolander
Zoolander is a 2001 American satirical comedy film directed by and starring Ben Stiller. The film contains elements from a pair of short films directed by Russell Bates and written by Drake Sather and Stiller for the VH1 Fashion Awards television specials in 1996 and 1997. The short films and the...
(2001) and The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. The film stars Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston, with Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson....
(2001). Although Singer was interested in Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
in the lead role, the director cast Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
to replace Stiller and commenced pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
in January 2001 on a planned $35 million budget. Renaissance Pictures was holding international distribution rights, but the filmmakers still needed more financing as well as a studio to cover distribution duties in the United States.
Grosvenor Park
Grosvenor Park Productions
Grosvenor Park Productions is a production and film-financing company. It is owned by Canadian film financing mogul Don Starr, headquartered in Los Angeles, and has an international office in London.-Filmography:* Penelope...
was interested in co-financing with Renaissance, but the next month (February 2001), Confessions was once again stalled in development. Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
had been negotiating for domestic rights, but difficulties arose when Miramax also wanted to cover international rights. Renaissance was also unable to close the financing in time to accommodate both the "production insurance" deadline and the 65-day shooting schedule
Shooting schedule
A shooting schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production. It is normally created and managed by the assistant director, who reports to the production manager managing the production schedule...
, which was set to primarily take place in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada. Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
then became interested in covering North American distribution rights, but dropped out after the bid went over $8 million. Johnny Depp eventually went to work on other films.
Director
With Singer busy preparing X-Men 2X2 (film)
X2 is a 2003 superhero film based on the fictional characters the X-Men. Directed by Bryan Singer, it is the second film in the X-Men film series...
, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was rejuvenated with actor George Clooney taking over the director's position. Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
agreed to cover distribution duties and co-finance the film. In the end, funding for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind came from Miramax, Clooney's own Section Eight Productions
Section Eight Productions
Section Eight Productions was a production company founded in 2000 by film director Steven Soderbergh and film actor George Clooney. It produced the critical hits Far From Heaven, Insomnia, Syriana, A Scanner Darkly and Michael Clayton, as well as Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous...
, Village Roadshow Pictures
Village Roadshow Pictures
Village Roadshow Pictures is an Australian motion picture production company. It is a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, an Australian entertainment company. Most of its films are co-produced in partnership with Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema...
, producer Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar
Andrew Lazar is an American film producer and graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.-Filmography:*Assassins *Unforgettable *Bound *10 Things I Hate About You...
's Mad Chance, Allied Filmmakers
Allied Filmmakers
Allied Filmmakers is a British film production company, founded by Jake Eberts in London in 1985 as a film branch from Pathé.- Production filmography :*Confessions of a Dangerous Mind *The Legend of Bagger Vance *Chicken Run...
and The Kushner-Locke Company
The Kushner-Locke Company
The Kushner-Locke Company is an American independent motion picture/television production company founded in 1983, it is named after its founders Donald Kushner and Peter Locke....
. Clooney explained, "I thought if I came on board as a director, for scale, and was able to bring everybody else on inexpensively, if I could get the film back down to $30 million, then I was going to be able to get the film made. That was a big part of my pitch to Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
at Miramax."
| "I was upset by the fact that Clooney took the movie from me and then cut me out after that. I'm unhappy with the end result. And I’m unhappy with George Clooney. I had a movie that I wrote and that isn't it. I've always been involved in the process with Spike Jonze Spike Jonze Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television... and Michel Gondry Michel Gondry Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :... . If there’s any rewriting to do, I do it. But with Clooney it was different even the end of the movie is different. I mean, Clooney went on forever about how my Confessions screenplay was one of the greatest scripts he’d read. But if someone truthfully felt that way they’d want the person who wrote it to be on board offering their thoughts and criticisms. But Clooney didn’t. And I think it’s a silly way to be a director." |
| — Writer Charlie Kaufman |
Because Confessions was his directing debut, Clooney took inspiration from friends Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
and the Coen brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
for his filmmaking style. Writer Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
said he was dissatisfied with the way Clooney treated the screenplay. "I spent a lot of time working on the script," he explained, "but I don't think he was interested in the things I was interested in. I've moved on and I don't have any animosity towards Clooney, but it's a movie I don't really relate to." Clooney acknowledged that Kaufman's original script contained "really funky scenes that would never reach the greenlight of being a studio film." A drug addiction subplot was removed based on Barris' request for historical authenticity.
Clooney was adamant that Barris become heavily involved during production in an attempt to portray the film from his point of view. Barris was so enthusiastic with Clooney's work on the film that he began writing Bad Grass Never Dies (ISBN 978-0-7867-1379-0), the sequel to Confessions; Miramax also owns the film rights to Bad Grass. Barris filmed cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s of himself during the shoot in Canada and taped a voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
in Clooney's house.
When asked about Barris' claim of being a CIA assassin, Clooney commented, "I don't know how much I believed it. I didn't want to officially ask him, because I didn't want him to say, 'I made it up.' I wanted to tell the story and I thought, how interesting if it was all made up, why someone as wealthy and as successful as Chuck Barris, would have to do that. I thought that was an interesting person to explore, and that's what we wanted to do with the film." Clooney acknowledged that his upbringing with father Nick Clooney
Nick Clooney
Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Clooney is an American journalist, anchorman, and television host. He is the brother of the late singer Rosemary Clooney, and father of actor and film director George Clooney.-Early life:...
had a great bearing on his choice of depicting the 1960/70s game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s. "My father had a game show when I was growing up called The Money Maze. I know what those sets look like. I showed the guy how to do cue card
Cue card
Cue cards, also known as note cards or idiot cards, are cards with words written on them that help actors and speakers remember what they have to say. They are typically used in television productions where they can be held off-camera and are unseen by the audience...
s. I grew up on them," the director reflected, "and knew what it looked like and smelled like. And I know something about some of the trappings of fame, so I thought I had a unique take on it."
Casting
Casting the lead role of Chuck Barris was a long, difficult process. "After two months of screen testScreen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
s and everything I still wasn't able to get Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of...
," Clooney reflected. Rockwell had always been Clooney's first choice ever since they worked together on Welcome to Collinwood
Welcome to Collinwood
Welcome to Collinwood is a 2002 American crime comedy film about five small-time criminals, from the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, who try to organize one last big job...
(2002). Both Clooney and Barris also believed Rockwell shared an uncanny resemblance to Barris. "I didn’t want someone too famous to play the role," the director reasoned. "In my opinion, you cannot have famous people playing famous people. It doesn’t work. Sam was the guy for the part, ready to break and hadn’t yet."
Prior to his audition, Rockwell "immersed" himself in the role by watching episodes of The Gong Show
The Gong Show
The Gong Show is an amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976 through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976–1980 and 1988–1989. The show was produced by Chuck Barris, who also served...
in an attempt to impress the filmmakers. "I went to LA [and] did an old-fashioned screen test, like a real Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...
-type screen test, which you know they don't really do anymore," the actor remembered. For research, Rockwell spent two-and-a-half-months with Barris. "We went to coffee shops and dinner and movies, took walks, went to the zoo, I even filmed him," Rockwell explained. "I had him tape my lines in a tape recorder, and I listened to that to get his voice down."
Clooney cast Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
as the mysterious CIA agent Patricia Watson due to their positive working relationship in Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)
Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 American comedy-crime caper and remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film of the same name. The 2001 film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. The film was...
(2001). Her role was originally set for Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
, who dropped out over scheduling conflicts with The Hours
The Hours (film)
The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris. The screenplay by David Hare is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham....
. After Rockwell's casting Confessions was once again briefly postponed; Miramax did not greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
the film until Roberts signed on. Clooney commented, "Julia really helped me. Her doing the part made it possible for me to cast Sam Rockwell. He can't drive a $28 million film, but Julia certainly can." Renee Zellweger
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire , and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary ...
and Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
were considered for the Penny Pacino role, which eventually went to Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
.
Miramax was unsure of Clooney's decision to cast Rockwell over other famous actors such as Robert Downey, Jr. and Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
. Clooney convinced the studio into giving him the right of final cut privilege
Final cut privilege
Final cut privilege is a film industry term, usually used when a director has contractual authority over how a film is ultimately released for public viewing.- Condition :...
and casting Rockwell in exchange for first look deal
First look deal
A first look deal is an arrangement, usually in the film industry, where either a company or in some cases an individual enters into a commercial agreement with a studio under which they must allow the studio the right of first refusal in relation to developing and/or producing a project the...
s on Full Frontal
Full Frontal (film)
Full Frontal is a 2002 film by Steven Soderbergh, about a day in the life of people in Hollywood. The film, starring Catherine Keener, David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, Mary McCormack and David Hyde Pierce was shot on digital video in under a month using the Canon XL-1s...
(2002) and other low-budget films from Clooney's Section Eight Productions
Section Eight Productions
Section Eight Productions was a production company founded in 2000 by film director Steven Soderbergh and film actor George Clooney. It produced the critical hits Far From Heaven, Insomnia, Syriana, A Scanner Darkly and Michael Clayton, as well as Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous...
. Clooney also agreed to cameo in Miramax's Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is a 2002 American family film, featuring spies and science fantasy elements. It was written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and is the second film in the Spy Kids film series, which began with 2001's Spy Kids. Its plot is loosely based on Dr...
(2002) so Rockwell could be cast. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced Roberts and Barrymore to lower their asking prices.
Filming
Under Clooney's direction, filming was initially set to begin in September 2001, but principal photography did not start until January 14, 2002. From January-March 2002, production for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind took place primarily in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
scene was shot in early-April at Los Angeles, California; the remainder two weeks of production took place around the Mexico – United States border. Filming for Confessions ended in late-April 2002.
Clooney and cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Newton Thomas Sigel
Newton Thomas Sigel
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC is an American cinematographer who mainly works with Bryan Singer. His father, Irving Sigel, was a noted psychologist who worked for the Educational Testing Service.-Filmography:*Latino...
used various techniques when portraying the different decades of a Barris' life. "We thought in order to go back in time, most people remember things through film," Clooney reasoned. "I don't remember the 1950s – I wasn't around for them – I know the 50s through Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. Not Technicolor as it was shot, but Technicolor as it has faded now." The filmmakers studied various films and magazine issues of that decade for inspiration on the color palette. Racking focus
Racking focus
Racking focus in filmmaking and television production is the practice of shifting the attention of a audience of a film or video by changing the focus of the lens from a subject in the foreground to a subject in the background, or vice versa...
es were highly stylized for scenes set in the 1960s, similar to the Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s of that era. Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...
s were used for scenes set in the 1970s, a homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the films of Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
, Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
and Alan J. Pakula
Alan J. Pakula
Alan Jay Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer noted for his contributions to the conspiracy thriller genre.-Career:...
, primarily Klute
Klute
Klute is a 1971 film which tells the story of a prostitute who assists a detective in solving a missing persons case. It stars Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. The movie was written by Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis and directed by Alan J. Pakula.Klute was the first...
(1971), Carnal Knowledge
Carnal knowledge
Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. The term derives from the Biblical usage of the verb know/knew, as in the King James and other versions, a euphemism for sexual conduct...
(1971) and The Parallax View
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
(1974) All That Jazz
All That Jazz
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his...
also influenced Clooney's direction.
Clooney commented that post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
for Confessions was stressful because he was simultaneously acting in Solaris
Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone...
(2002).
Release
To tie-inTie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
with the release of the film, Miramax Books
Miramax Books
Miramax Books was a publishing imprint started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films and was known for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It published the memoirs of many major celebrities, including David Boies, Madeline Albright, Rudolph Giuliani, Tim Russert, and others...
republished Barris' 1984 book. The film premiered out-of-competition at the May 2002 Cannes Film Festival
2002 Cannes Film Festival
The 2002 Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.-Jury:* David Lynch * Sharon Stone* Michelle Yeoh...
before Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
gave it a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in the United States on December 31, 2002; the wide release
Wide release
Wide release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing nationally . Specifically, a movie is considered to be in wide release when it is on 600 screens or more in the United States and Canada.In the US, films holding an NC-17 rating almost never have a...
came on January 23, 2003. The film was a box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
; grossing only $33.01 million, $16 million domestically and $17.01 million from foreign markets. It also suffered poor sales in its September 2003 Region 1 DVD
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
release. The DVD includes over 20 minutes of deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, Rockwell's three screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
s, a short documentary titled The Real Chuck Barris, Clooney's audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
, and a making-of
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
featurette.
Critical response
The film received positive responses from critics. Based on 158 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 79% of the reviewers enjoyed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with an average rating of 7.1/10. The film was more balanced with the 30 reviews in Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critics" poll, receiving an 83% approval rating and a 7.4 score. By comparison, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
calculated an average score of 67/100, based on 33 reviews. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
on February 10, 2003. Sam Rockwell won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
Silver Bear for Best Actor
The Silver Bear for Best Actor is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actor.- Awards :- External links :*...
and George Clooney was nominated the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
, but lost to Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...
of In This World
In This World
In This World is a 2002 British docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film follows two young Afghan refugees, Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, as they leave a refugee camp in Pakistan for a better life in London. Since their journey is illegal, it is fraught with danger, and they must...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave Confessions of a Dangerous Mind a positive review. "George Clooney's directorial debut is not only intriguing as a story but great to look at," Ebert continued, "a marriage of bright pop images from the 1960s and 1970s and dark, cold spyscapes that seem to have wandered in from John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
." Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone magazine believed the film carried a perfect balance of dark humor and psychological drama. "Clooney tackles a far-reaching absurdist fantasy with Barris as a paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
of paranoia," Travers reviewed. "He wisely hooks up with talent he worked with as an actor: cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel
Newton Thomas Sigel
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC is an American cinematographer who mainly works with Bryan Singer. His father, Irving Sigel, was a noted psychologist who worked for the Educational Testing Service.-Filmography:*Latino...
, from Three Kings (1999) and editor Stephen Mirrione
Stephen Mirrione
Stephen Mirrione is an American film editor. He won an Academy Award for his editing of the film Traffic .-Life and career:...
from Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)
Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 American comedy-crime caper and remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film of the same name. The 2001 film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. The film was...
(2001)."
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
from the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
wrote that "there may be more entertaining and less problematic movies, but Confessions of a Dangerous Mind has something about it that hangs in there, working on the mind like a dog gnawing on a table leg. The movie makes a case for itself through sheer oddness and perversity. I'm not sure Confessions is a good movie, but I am sure I like it." Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
, writing in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, observed that "Sam Rockwell is handsome in a rumpled, slightly goofy rabbit-toothed way, but he doesn't really have the look, or aura, of a movie star
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
," Glieberman stated. "He's more like a weirdly sincere space cadet, babbling to himself with puppyish befuddlement, breaking into funky soft dance moves that look as if he's been doing them in his bedroom since he was 8. All of which makes him an inspired choice to play Chuck Barris."
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
gave a negative review. He disliked the characterization of Chuck Barris and commented that "with its multiplicity of over-stylized looks and slick gimmicks, Dangerous Mind was doubtless more stimulating to direct than it will be for audiences to experience." Internet reviewer James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
wrote a mixed critique. "George Clooney is eager to show how much he has learned at the hands of the A-list filmmakers he has toiled under. So we get a style that is about 50% Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
and 50% Coen brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
. Sometimes it works, but mostly it comes across as too artsy, with all sorts of bizarre angles and unusual shots."
External links
- Confessions of a Dangerous Mind at the Internet Movie Script Database