Rick

"Rick" is loosely based on Rigoletto, the tragic clown of Verdi's opera. Don't look to this film to find any parallel between the tragic court jester and the man at the center of it, Rick O'Lette, as the film is loosely based on the opera.

Curtiss Clayton, an editor who has started to direct his own projects, is an enormously talented man, as he shows with this indie film that we missed when it was released. "Rick" also has the powerful writing of Daniel Handler, who wrote the screen play. The film was a neat discovery, perhaps because we had no expectations of what was coming. Much credit is owed to its director who shows great style in telling the story for the screen.

If you haven't seen the film, perhaps you would like to stop reading here.

Rick, who we meet at the beginning of the film walking to his office, is one of the new breed of heartless executives, occupying important places within a company. As such, he is a man that feels above and beyond people like Michelle, an eager job applicant, who commits the sin of entering Rick's office when she shouldn't, only to interrupt Rick from watching the results of sports on his computer. When he finally calls her, he proceeds to belittle the young woman in a manner that is completely uncalled for. Of course, Michelle doesn't get the job!

We then meet Rick's boss, a ninety day wonder called Duke, who is just as obtuse as his employee, and much younger. A punk in business attire. Duke is just a repulsive individual who loves to visit porno chat rooms to get his kicks. Later that night while drinking, Rick and Duke find out Michelle, the would be employee, is their waitress at the club. Rick is completely offensive toward the woman, who has had it and she proceeds to tell him off, and is fired because of it. Michelle tells Rick, in no uncertain terms, that she hopes he will have to suffer for all what she has put her through. Never were these words more fitting.

Things are not much better at home where we see Eve, Rick's daughter chatting on the computer. Eve is a sad young woman. Evidently her mother has died, although nothing is revealed as to what happened. Rick, as a father shows not much warmth toward Eve.

When a former college friend, mysteriously visits Rick, we are not ready for what is coming next. Buck has a proposition for Rick that, at first, he is reluctant to comply with, but in retrospect, he goes along, but he has no clue of what an ironic fate awaits Rick at the end. It's almost as though the curse Michelle put on Rick had its effect when he least expected it.

Bill Pullman makes Rick a despicable individual without any redeeming qualities. Mr. Pullman does a wonderful job to convey this yuppie with the heart in the wrong place. The beautiful Agnes Bruckner plays Eve, Rick's daughter, who knows much more for her young age than some older, more experienced person. She is one of the best of the new actresses acting in films these days. Aaron Stanford is the reptilian Duke. Sandra Oh is wonderful as Michelle. Dylan Baker, a great character actor of stage and screen has a few excellent moments as Buck.

This is a film that should be seen by a wider audience. It proves that Curtiss Clayton is a director to be reckoned with.

Bill Pullman stars as the title character Rick, a mean spirited businessman who does not care who he has to step on or what he has to do in order to get ahead.

The movie starts when he goes overboard with an interviewee (Sandra Oh)one day and not only insults her, but costs her her current job as well. He shows little regard for her and she loses it and "curses" him. Of course, from this point forward, he seems to have bad luck, but nothing too abnormal. At least not for awhile.

I did not care for this movie because it made you sit through some pretty boring drivel and it does not pay off in the end. In fact, it becomes pretty predictable. I also got a bit of an incestuous vibe from Pullman's character and that of his daughter, Eve, played by Agnes Bruckner (who is very beautiful and probably the best thing about this movie). This does not seem to have any purpose, therefore does not sit well with me, either. Also, too many coincidences to make the movie as unbelievable as it is boring. Pullman does not pull off the performance you would expect here and to be honest, I really can not recommend it. I give this movie 4 out of 10.

"Rick" transposes the plot of "Rigoletto" to the world of New York big business sans the music. It's a nice, if obvious, dark little picture that almost no-one has seen. Bill Pullman is the corporate whizkid whose dirty dealings and total disregard for people's feelings come back to haunt him when he is 'cursed' by Sandra Oh's waitress that he's been particularly nasty to, (he gets her fired from her job for starters). Pullman is fine, (he's an underrated actor at the best of times), as is Aaron Stanford as his slimy younger boss and the movie is just nasty enough to make an impact. No classic then but far from being a dog either.

Other's have given good synopses of the plot so I'll not go along that route, and I'll keep this brief. One other commenter noted the quality of Bill Pullman and I have to concur. He has a habit of choosing rather off-beat films that deserve greater success than they receive; I'm thinking of The Zero Effect and Lost Highway rather than Independence Day.

I was expecting very little from this film and was awed by the quality of the production. Rick managed to build its own style as a film, being grotesque and dramatic, yet the moniker of DARK COMEDY was not a lie on the sleeve, it really was very funny.

Thankfully the film only follows the same general route as the opera. Guiseppe Verdi (sounds so dull when you translate it to English - Joe Green) never wrote for the screen. Yet... the production retains a very set-like feel, as if it was taken from a play.

The only criticism that I can really level at Rick is that it seems to lose its pacing in the last 15 minutes, when you can see the slow car-crash of a finale approaching. The director really passes up opportunities to build suspense and there is a feeling of an opportunity lost. However, this stands out only due to the quality overall.

In summary, it's got really superb characters, none of them are out of the box at all. Gothic and fatalistic, funny and sexy but cruel and merciless. The acting is faultless, stand-out performances from Bill Pullman and Sandra Oh, with a special mention for one of the most cringe-worthy bosses of all time to Aaron Stanford - watch out for him in the future.

To say that "Rick" is a black, bleak, despicable and vile wretch of a film is an understatement of solemnly epic proportions, but this doesn't mean it's not worth seeing.

There are great performances, especially from the always-superb Bill Pullman who - I have to say it - pulls out all the stops here in his portrayal of a man who has rotted from the inside (his wife was murdered for pocket change) and is still forced to go on living. "We can do this," is the motto of the company he works for, and this is but one tiny little irony in a film that is virtually overloaded with them, some subtle and some blatantly in-your-face obvious, but in the end, they all work, because the film is edited properly, with not one frame that doesn't belong. See it with someone you thoroughly despise.