The Million Dollar Hotel

For those of you who are big Mel Gibson fans. This is not your movie. This is for Wim Wenders and U2 fans. This is an art film, though it is made accessible by the performances of Davies, Jovovich and Gibson. It is a very simple, character driven film with a host of great actors. (It is nice to see that Bud Cort is doing something interesting.) The best films usually take a simple story and do it very well. Such are the films of Kubrik and Kurosawa, two of the greatest film-makers of all time (if you don't agree there is a good chance you wont like this film). This film (as opposed to just "movie") has a very simple story, but it does it beautifully. I recommend it to any film lover.

PS: If you like this one check out "Dersu Uzala" by Kurosawa and "Purple Noon" (trans.) by Clement.

Behind a kind of bad love story , really common ,there are some feelings , some behaviours you can't forget after having seen this movie , it looks as if everyone was fool , but, you manage minute after minute to understand them , and think like them ...don't watch it, as a ridiculous appearing love story ...

I read only negative critics about this movie and I don't confirm that. I found it very interesting. I was even often laughing where everybody in the cinema around me were silent!! I have to admit that I had big questions after watching it but this is usual for the most movies of Wim Wenders. Anyway he is the director from whom I watched the biggest number of movies. Some crazy people (in a way or another) live in the Million Dollar Hotel where everything took place. At the end I was asking myself whether they were crazy at all. I even felt that inhabitants of this hotel are an allegory on the whole crazy world! Or maybe they were sane and the others were insane!! There was certainly a critic about many aspects of the life in USA. It is for instance certainly not a coincidence that a personality in this happens to be a big Jewish media boss who manipulates the FBI and the Media in the way he wants!! Why was the FBI agent a half cripple? The were many other questions. One thing is sure, and that is that I was not bored at all. The photography was great as expected from W. Wenders. The music is also very nice and U2 (or Bono) put a lot of their (his) talent inside it. I surely should not forget the actors. They acted all very good and in a persuasive manner. Anyhow I expect that many people wouldn't like. It doesn't have the typical kind of stories that are generally common and beloved by the most of the public but it is right variety for me.

Here's a brief guide to help you determine if you should see "The Million Dollar Hotel"

If you...

a) Enjoy Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay collaborations b) Thirst insatiably for explosions, car chases and sex scenes featuring silicone-enhanced blondes c) Are considering this film only because you're a Mel Gibson fan...

THEN DON'T RENT "THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL"! YOU WILL LIKELY HATE IT!

Otherwise, you might want to give this one a shot. MDH is far, far off the beaten Hollywood path. It's a quiet, understated film that finds beauty and grace in very unlikely places. Bono and Wim Wenders have put together a love story so unconventional that it nearly defies description... it is certainly NOT a "tragi-comic, romantic whodunnit", despite the IMDb plot summary. It's a tale of quiet desperation and pervasive sadness that dares to violate pretty much every unwritten rule in the movie business... further off the wall than "Being John Malkovich" but infinitely more subtle and ultimately smarter.

On the surface it's a tale narrated by an idiot (a dead one at that) which signifies very little. Set in a run-down hotel in which mentally-ill derelicts and freaks are squatting, the film primarily follows Tom-Tom (Jeremy Daviess), a deceptively simple fool who is madly in love with a schizophrenic girl (Milla Jovovich)--who is a heartachingly beautiful hybrid of the Virgin Mary and the Whore of Babylon. The plot is fairly intriguing-- Hardass cop Mel Gibson is investigating the mysterious death of a tycoon's prodigal junkie son. The crazies at the hotel devise an elaborate con job to profit from this tragedy... provided they can bluff a snooty art critic and keep the cops distracted.

Some humorous moments ensue. But the plot is almost irrelevant here. The film works because of the engaging oddball characters (especially Peter Stormare as an obsessive Beatles fan and Jimmy Smits as a bizarre Native American "artist"), because of the brilliantly surreal, postapocalyptic cinematography, and because the sheer naked unhappiness of the film crawls inside of you and doesn't go away for several days. Bono's script, like the best of his music, is deeply cynical about society, but retains a faith in the salvation of individuals. It is neither a comedy, a drama, or a romance... it really just plays out like a bittersweet existential ballad. The only romantic scene features an idiot and a schizoid whore who never actually have sex... but it's one of the most touching love scenes ever captured on film. If that sounds like your cup of tea, check out "The Million Dollar Hotel". I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Subject: Million Dollar Hotel (2000)

A lovely, lyrical, magical film about many ideas, not the least of which is the strength of the weak. The plot revolves around several "loonies" in a hotel for those with no where else to go. Billed as a murder mystery, I suppose it is that, too. Barely. I had no interest in who the killer was. Just wanted these people's lives to unfold before me forever. Mel Gibson does a very interesting and funny parody of his cop persona; the actor who plays Tom Tom is terrific as a presumably dim-witted gopher to the various inhabitants (he calls himself "the beggar's butler"),Milla Jovovich is a leading lady of sorts, a constant smoker and reader who describes herself as fictional; and, Jimmy Smits as Geronimo, a Latino Indian-chief wannabe, an artist in hiding and up-front scam artist. I'm not a film reviewer, and I have always been partial to Wenders' films. That being said, I'm going downstairs now to watch the film again. P.S. Bono! Who knew?