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"He Was a Quiet Man" is an incredibly frustrating film. I saw half of it one night and the next day, I was telling my friends all about it. However, when I later went back and finished the film, this wonderful film turned sour...very sour. I hate it when you are hooked by a film--only to have the ending completely fall apart. This is because, believe it or not, through much of the film it seems like a very, very dark romantic-comedy--an odd thing, I know, but it WORKED. However, later in the film, the comedy was gone and the film simply became a dark and depressing mess.

Christian Slater plays Bob--a psychotic who carries a gun to work in his briefcase. Regularly, he loads and unloads the gun--struggling within himself whether or not to murder his coworkers. Then, one day the unexpected happens. As he's loading his gun, he drops a bullet on the floor and bends down to pick it up--at which time ANOTHER crazed employee goes on a killing spree of his own!! When Bob gets off the floor, he's staring at the murderer. But instead of just shooting Bob, the two talk in a very weird and surreal manner. Ultimately, when the guy then talks of killing Bob, Bob shoots the guy first--and becomes an instant hero.

What happens next is very funny--in a dark and inappropriate manner. It also, oddly, becomes a romance, as a co-worker who was paralyzed in the shooting soon falls in love with Bob...and vice-versa. It's all very cute and soon you see Bob come out of his shell and become a much healthier person. It all sound strange but cute--sort of like a Bryan Fuller show like "Pushing Daisies" (it has very similar colors, sensitivities and style). Well, this is the case--until late in the film when this entire mood vanishes and the movie is just dark and unpleasant. Clearly, the ending, if done differently, could have made this a GREAT film. As it is, however, it's just maddeningly frustrating.

It seems that every once and a while, an occasionally brilliant film will catch my attention in the late hours of the night (or the early hours of the morning, as it was in my case); I found that film in "He Was a Quiet Man," writer-director Frank A. Cappello's brilliantly acted, smartly written satire about that unlikely hero whose "heroic" act may not have been so heroic, and in fact masked an inner rage that may actually make him the villain.

A seriously understated Christian Slater stars as Bob Maconel, a frustrated office worker whose first words in the picture have him counting the amount of bullets in his gun and who his intended targets are going to be. Bob lives alone and works as a drone in one of those big technology firms where it's never made clear what it is that they actually do, or what everyone's jobs are. Bob's day-to-day existence consists of him feeding his fish (who he talks to and they occasionally give him bad advice, fueling his murderous rage), going to work, rarely being acknowledged by his neighbors, being picked on by his co-workers, and working up the courage to go on his deadly shooting spree.

Well, just when Bob finally gets the courage to do the deed, he is beaten to the punch by a fellow enraged office worker. In the middle of the carnage, Bob and the shooter manage to strike up a casual conversation. When Bob asks why he's not going to shoot him, the man replies, "Because you're the only person in this office who's more pathetic than I am." Bob takes this personally and guns down the assailant. Afterward, he rushes to the side of the office beauty, Vanessa Parks (Elisha Cuthbert), who was seriously wounded in the attack and is the only person Bob ever really liked. Her smile could "light up a room," we're told throughout the film.

Bob is then branded a hero. The people he despised are now his best friends, including the office bully and the office slut, who would have never given the time of day before. (She gets her comeuppance in one particular scene that is all of hilarious, disgusting, and disturbing.) He gets a promotion, a brand-new office next to the big boss, Mr. Shelby (William H. Macy), and the company car. His neighbors finally acknowledge him; when one of them asks when did he move in, Bob replies, "I've lived here five years." He soon begins to visit Vanessa in the hospital, whose spine was severed by a bullet and is now a quadriplegic. She begs him to finish what the shooter started. When he relents, that's when the two begin a tentative relationship that begins to calm the deadly monster lurking within him. Later on in the film, however, troubling questions begin to arise about Bob's sanity and his grip on his new reality that he has found himself in.

As many have mentioned, "He Was a Quiet Man," seems to combine elements of past similar-themed features including "Falling Down," "Office Space" and "A History of Violence," plus a few of the artistically weird storytelling aesthetics of a David Lynch picture. Similarities seem to end fairly early in the picture after Bob first becomes a hero and a media darling. It seems that when you finally have a grasp on where it's all headed, the picture does a 360 and winds up going right back to where it started, both metaphorically and literally.

Slater was pretty good in this film; his performance here worked from his first seconds on screen, his character of office drone Bob Maconel combining elements of the main characters from the films I mentioned earlier and hitting all the right emotive notes. For years, he's been hounded by his Jack Nicholson obsession and I think here he seems to have finally come into his own as a seriously demented loner who is quickly losing his grip on reality.

While by no means one of my favorite actresses, it was a delight to see Elisha Cuthbert in a role where her gorgeous looks are only part of her performance and are not THE performance; here is a beautiful woman who freely admits to using her sexuality as a means of getting ahead in life and now she's been reduced to nothing - a fact that she freely admits to having accepted - and finally having to take things extra slow because her most valuable asset has been taken away from her: her own body. Maybe I'm overreaching or being overly critical - I did like her in "The Girl Next Door" (2004) - she can act, it's that I haven't liked too many of her film projects since '04. Anyway, when she's confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, for me, it's almost like stepping back to truly appreciate a fine piece of art. Only then, is she truly beautiful.

"He Was a Quiet Man" is not a perfect film. The script is prone to occasional slips of the pen in certain places, but the performances (especially by Christian Slater and Elisha Cuthbert) and Cappello's artistic direction and grip on the finer points of the material make up for it. "He Was a Quiet Man" is one of those brilliant movies that forces us to look at ourselves and see what makes us tick. It's funny, it's dramatic and it's also occasionally quite disturbing, but it is an example of all-around great, late-night fanfare that deserves more respect from the movie-going public.

9/10

Frank A. Cappello, writer and director of He Was a Quiet Man, is a man with something to prove, having written the hilariously bad Hulk Hogan vehicle Suburban Commando, and directing the wholly disappointing Constantine. He Was a Quiet Man, whilst not an unqualified success, is one of the underseen gems of 2007.

The film is essentially an amalgam of A History of Violence, Falling Down, and Office Space, with a pile of quirks to boot. Bob Maconel (the hilariously disguised Christian Slater), a despondent office worker, decides that he is going to perform a murderous rampage at his work office, yet before he can do so, a fellow maniac beats him to it. However, Bob, in protecting the one person that he cares about, the beautiful Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert), guns down the assailant, and inadvertently becomes a hero.

Bob is unashamedly similar to Michael Douglas' "D-Fens" character from Falling Down, kitted out in a shirt and tie, and even further, seeks moments of reflection in the great outdoors, although in this instance, there are no Mexican gangsters attempting to rob him. The similarities do, thankfully, stop there – this film is born of something else, with its CGI traffic whizzing by at astronomical speeds as Bob dawdles along, illustrating the drudgery of Bob's life without an ounce of subtlety. Whilst the film as a whole is overly reliant on visual curiosities such as this, the animated, talking fish which eggs Bob on to kill his colleagues is delightfully colourful, and mildly amusing to boot.

As one can gather from the above paragraph, He Was a Quiet Man is very surreal in a hilarious sort of way. Essentially, if you gave David Lynch a funny bone, you'd probably end up with something remarkably similar to this. Despite the aforementioned reliance on visual effects, the film is unquestionably carried by the barely-recognisable Slater who, despite his recent collaboration with tragically awful director Uwe Boll, proves that he is still worth something in Hollywood, with comic timing that is nothing short of spot on.

Bob is essentially revered by everyone around him for his "heroic" actions – he is given a new job, his colleagues no longer think of him as a schmuck, and the sexy office bitch wants to have sex with him, yet the film's real point of contention is Cuthbert's character. Vanessa is left paralysed following the shooting, wishing that she was dead, and moreover, she wishes that Bob, who saved her life, would kill her.

A surprisingly understated (until the climatic scenes) conundrum surfaces as an aside to this drama – Bob still finds those around him utterly repugnant, and he considers whether or not to carry out what the other gunner started, as well as putting Vanessa out of her misery, of course. The film carries these questions very well – it is at times predictable, and occasionally not so, yet it never ceases to lose its sense of intrigue. The film's examination of the way in which humans operate is not intricate, and verges on syrupy at times, yet what is most entertaining about He Was a Quiet Man is its surreal spirit. Furthermore, even in its sweetness, the film explores the lives of disabled persons with a surprising level of insight and honesty . It may be exaggerated, and at times, even humorous, yet its approach is undeniably refreshing, particularly in relation to how the disabled manage to still engage in an active and healthy sex life.

He Was a Quiet Man never remains comfortable, constantly fidgeting and posing new questions for both ourselves and Bob to consider. The film follows through with an insane close, yet it is the most manically reasoned, and therefore, perhaps the most realistic end possible (although term "realism" is a very tenuous one in a film as twisted as this). The ending comes very abruptly, and little is done to satisfy viewer curiosity, yet we are given the vital answers, even if they aren't wholly satisfying, and are a tad questionable. We are left to ponder several things, yet when the preceding ninety minutes are so intentionally devoid of poignance, the film may simply leave your mind as the final frame does.

Christian Slater's latest and greatest effort (at least for a while) is A History of Violence without the graphic violence, Falling Down without the social commentary, and Office Space without the sagacious humour. Yes, it is a blend of all three films, at the cost of diluting each of them. The film's worst crime may be never allowing us to particularly care for Bob (or anyone) as much as we did for D-Fens in Schumacher's film, yet even despite its relative superficiality, He Was a Quiet Man remains a thoroughly entertaining, inventive and quirky film that will have nihilists the world over utterly dumbfounded (myself included). Elisha Cuthbert pulls out a career best (in that she is above tolerable, and even "good"), William H Macy plays the corporate yes-man with glee, and Slater, with great aid from his fabulous make-up department, looks and acts with great hilarity. It is unfortunate that this film, embracing its flaws as it so flagrantly does, has yet to find a large audience, and as such, it instantly becomes one of the indie staples of 2007.

I liked this movie. My wife saw it first and has been recommending that I see ever since.

I am a fan of Christian Slater and his portrayal of the lonesome loser is excellent. I could really feel the gut wrenching moments that he went through. The costume for him his excellent. I almost did recognize him.

Elisha Cuthbert, a Canadian beauty, while always a please to watch never has made it a reason for me to watch.

**** SPOILER ALERT**** The real issue I had here with this movie is the striking similarity in the way the plot unfolded as it does in the movie Boxing Helena (a personal favorite). While the characters, circumstances and personal relationships between the characters were different the end result is the same. The story teller takes you down one path only to bring you full circle in the end. The physical dependency on Elisha's character has on Christian is very similar and you just know that this is not on a level playing field.

Somewhere about the half way point I made the connection and knew where the movie would end up. I was truly hoping to be wrong and to see the love in the story conquer all.

"He Was a Quiet Man" is perhaps the most original and unpredictable movie I've ever seen. If you're looking for something "normal", you should probably look elsewhere.

A story of an extremely lonely, put-upon, disturbed man who desperately wants to be Somebody. Christian Slater plays this man absolutely brilliantly. In watching his performance, I kept thinking "Where is Christian Slater?" ... Well, he's not even in the neighborhood. Well done, guy!

The direction is absolutely amazing: colorful, imaginative, darkly funny, and surreal. Cubicles, and hummingbirds, and talking fish, oh my!

While the film is not particularly emotionally satisfying (to say the least), on the cerebral and aesthetic level, it delivers big time.

"He Was a Quiet Man" answers the musical question: "Now maniacs will think twice before going crazy."

Yessiree.