Primary navigation
Breakfast of Champions
USA 1999
Reviewed by Edward Lawrenson
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Midland City, the US, the present. Having failed to go through with a suicide attempt, Pontiac car salesman Dwayne Hoover bids goodbye to his depressed wife Celia and leaves for work. Pulp science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout, meanwhile, has been invited by millionaire admirer Eliot Rosewater to an art festival he's bank-rolling in the city. Curious, the writer begins to hitchhike there from Detroit.
At Hoover's showroom, car salesman and secret cross-dresser Harry Le Sabre mistakenly thinks that Hoover, his boss, knows he's a transvestite. Later, Hoover slips away with his employee Francine and has sex with her in a hotel. Afterwards, he runs into his son, cocktail pianist Bunny, whom he's disowned for being gay. Wayne Hoobler, who has been obsessed with Hoover while serving time at Shepardstown Adult Correctional Centre, a nearby prison, is released and camps out at Hoover's showroom; Le Sabre, meanwhile, reveals his penchant for wearing women's clothes live on television while advertising Hoover's showroom. Trout makes it to the festival hotel as Hoover - in the throes of a mental breakdown - checks in. At the festival, Hoover meets Trout, attacks Bunny and runs off. On the outskirts of the city, Hoover is reconciled with Bunny and Celia.
Review
In the preface to his 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut's admits writing the book was a way to clear his head of "all the junk in there". This authorial aside is typical Vonnegut: chatty, confessional and self-deprecatory. And it's this sprightly tone which makes his rather dated satire on consumerism worth reading. Interspersing his tale of car salesman Dwayne Hoover's breakdown with frivolous illustrations and his alter-ego novelist Kilgore Trout's darkly comic observations on life - at one point, Kilgore tells us he wants his epitaph to read, "He tried" - Vonnegut at least makes a pretty display of all the junk he disgorges.
Sadly, director Alan Rudolph's adaptation has none of this assured lightness of touch. Structurally, the film is a mess: on screen, the novel's digressive, anecdotal narrative seems directionless and muddled. Trout's long trek, for instance, across the US for an arts festival in Midland City is ponderously done; and when he finally gets there, his brief scenes with Hoover are curiously throwaway, their dialogue heavy on allusive aphorisms ("It's all life, so make use of it"). For most of the film, Albert Finney's performance as Trout is one long monologue: muffled by a thick coat and fur hat, the writer's wheezy pronouncements can be enjoyable, but Finney has none of the old-man insouciance of the novel's Trout. There, Trout talked to his pet bird because he wanted to and didn't care if it seemed weird; in the film, he also talks to his bird, but this time it feels like a handy way for Rudolph to impart crucial plot points.
But the film is at its most disappointing depicting Hoover's mental breakdown. When we first see the successful car salesman, he's quivering in his bathroom, with a gun jammed in his mouth. And that's about the sanest he gets; from then on, it's all unhinged histrionics, maudlin asides and uncalled-for assaults on his mild-mannered employees. Bruce Willis attacks the part at full throttle. But while the partly self-financed film is no vanity project - at one point, after sex with his secretary in a cheap hotel, Hoover's brush-over hairstyle peels away from his bald patch and falls limply to one side - Willis' performance, all madness, no method, soon feels embarrassingly indulgent. Rudolph - best known for such romantic dramas as Afterglow - has a reputation as an actor's director, but here his impressive cast, including Nick Nolte as a cross-dressing car salesman and Omar Epps as Hoover's harmless stalker, are allowed to over-act wildly. Despite a few rather forced visual flourishes - feet sinking into a CGI pavement as if it's made of treacle - Rudolph relies largely on crudely overblown acting styles to convey Hoover's increasingly skewed world view. At times, the result leaves you thinking of an actors' improvisation session gone badly wrong. Judging from the film's perfunctory UK release, it seems the distributors are quietly burying Breakfast of Champions. And in the end, the kindest comment you can make about Rudolph is the very thing Kilgore Trout wanted on his tombstone: he tried.
Credits
- Director
- Alan Rudolph
- Producers
- David Blocker
- David Willis
- Screenplay
- Alan Rudolph
- Based on the novel by
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- Director of Photography
- Elliot Davis
- Editor
- Suzy Elmiger
- Production Designer
- Nina Ruscio
- Music
- Mark Isham
- ©Sugar Creek Productions, Incorporated
- Production Companies
- Hollywood Pictures/ Summit Entertaiment and Flying Heart Films
- Commercial Segment Producer
- Mark McNair
- Associate Producer
- Sandra Tomita
- Production Associate
- Monica de Armond
- Production Co-ordinator
- Alison Sherman
- Unit Production Manager
- Jane Bartelme
- Location Manager
- Victoria Golden
- Location Co-ordinator
- Bradley Bemis
- Post-production Supervisor
- Charlie Vogel
- Assistant Directors
- Cara Giallanza
- Eric Fox Hays
- Adam Glickman
- Script Supervisor
- Annie Welles
- Casting
- Pam Dixon Mickelson
- Associate:
- Barbara Allen
- Animation Element Photographers
- Paul Beauchemin
- Chuy Elizondo
- Jon Tucker
- Camera Operator/ Steadicam
- John Nuler
- Visual Imagery
- Stephen Kirklys
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Janet Muswell
- Visual Effects Co-ordinators
- Suzanne Jack
- Robert Parigi
- Digital Visual Effects
- Click 3X Los Angeles
- Projection Services/ Additional Visual FX
- Digiscope
- Digital Film Services
- Digital FilmWorks
- Matte Painting
- Moving Target
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Bobby Riggs
- Technician:
- Ray Brown
- Lead Animator
- Ingin Kim
- Animator
- Pat Campbell
- Animation Co-ordinator
- Andra Cekalla
- Commercial Production Designer
- Chuck Conner
- Art Director
- Randy Eriksen
- Set Decorator
- K.C. Fox
- Costume Designer
- Rudy Dillon
- Costume Supervisor
- Sandy Kenyon
- Key Make-up
- Gerald Quist
- Make-up
- Debra Coleman
- Key Hair Stylist
- Bunny Parker
- Hair Stylist
- Kathe Swanson
- Main Title Design
- Steve Kirklys
- Janet Muswell
- Title Drawings
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- End Titles
- Cinema Research Corporation
- Opticals
- Cineric Inc
- János Pilenyi
- Songs Performed by
- Martin Denny
- Music Performed by
- The Mark Isham Sessions
- Violins:
- Clayton Haslop
- Sid Page
- Bass:
- Arni Egilsson
- Accordion:
- Frank Marocco
- Marimba:
- Alan Estes
- Piano:
- Rich Ruttenberg
- Bass Clarinet:
- Jim Kanter
- Harmonica:
- Stanley Behrens
- and
- The Sugar Creek Philharmonic
- Conductor/
- Orchestrations:
- Ken Kugler
- Music Producer:
- Mark Isham
- Music Editor:
- Craig Pettigrew
- Recordist/Mixer:
- Stephen Krause
- The Bunny Hoover Sessions
- Wurlitzer:
- Lukas Haas
- Keyboards:
- Lukas Haas
- Hal Sweazey
- Additional Keyboards:
- Jeffrey Bass
- Drums:
- Mike Clair
- Josh Kelly
- Producers:
- Lukas Haas
- David Blocker
- Music Editor:
- Jonathan Karp
- Recording Engineer:
- Randy Quigley
- Music Editor
- Steve Borne
- Soundtrack
- "Stranger in Paradise", "Forbidden Island", "Aku, Aku", "Similau", "Cobra", "Oro", "Llama Serenade", "Quiet Village", "Coronation", "Hypnotique", "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekau", "Flamingo", "Escales", "Jungle Madness", "Song of the Bayou", "Siboney", "Kalua (Love Song of)", "Exotica" - Martin Denny; "Stranger in Paradise" - The Ink Spots; "Nun's Chorus" & "Laura's Aria" - Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields; "Stranger in Paradise" - Arthur Lyman; "Borrowed Borodin"; "Stranger in Paradise", "Wedding Day", "Mr. Rhythm Mover", "Good Art Just Ahead" - Lukas Haas
- Production Sound Recorder
- Susumu Tokunow
- Re-recording Mixers
- Lou Solakofski
- Orest Sushko
- Audio Post Co-ordinator
- Danielle Capawanna
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Paul P. Soucek
- Eliza A. Paley
- Sound Editor
- William Sweeney
- Dialogue Editor
- Sylvia Menno
- Sound Effects Editor
- Michael W. Mitchell
- ADR
- Supervising Editor:
- Lisa Levine
- Editors:
- Bruce Kitzmeyer
- Becky Sullivan
- Foley
- Artist:
- Donna Powell
- Engineer:
- Ian Rankin
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Greg Walker
- Animal Wrangler
- Anne Gordon
- Cast
- Bruce Willis
- Dwayne Hoover
- Albert Finney
- Kilgore Trout
- Nick Nolte
- Harry Le Sabre
- Barbara Hershey
- Celia Hoover
- Glenne Headly
- Francine Pefko
- Lukas Haas
- Bunny Hoover
- Omar Epps
- Wayne Hoobler
- Vicki Lewis
- Grace Le Sabre
- Buck Henry
- Fred T. Barry
- Ken Campbell
- Eliot Rosewater/Gilbert
- Jake Johannsen
- Bill Bailey
- Will Patton
- Moe
- Chip Zien
- Andy Wojeckowzski
- Owen Wilson
- Monte Rapid
- Alison Eastwood
- Maria Maritmo
- Shawnee Smith
- Bonnie MacMahon
- Michael Jai White
- Howell
- Keith Joe Dick
- Vernon Garr
- Diane Dick
- Rosemary Garr
- Michael Duncan
- Eli
- Lahmard Tate
- Elmore
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- commercial director
- Dawn Didawick
- Lottie
- Bill Nagel
- EPA lawyer
- Karl Wiedergott
- Homer
- Patti Allison
- Blossom
- Alexa Robbins
- art hostess Kaye
- Debra Dusay
- art hostess Faye
- Tom Robbins
- Pesky Webber
- Raymond O'Connor
- Rabo Karebekian
- Tisha Sterling
- Beatrice Keedsler
- Matt Callahan
- Zeke the gas station attendant
- Tracey Lee Mapstone
- mailwoman
- Mary Kennedy
- waitress
- Greg Walker
- highway patrolman
- David Blampied
- prison guard
- Greg Moore
- porn store patron
- Doug Hamblin
- mugger
- David Blampied
- NY policeman
- Patrice Thomas
- NY policewoman
- Nancy Volle
- Marlo
- Danielle Kennedy
- motel clerk
- Scout Willis
- young girl
- Nicolas Small
- young boy
- Denise Simone
- 'Blue Monday' housewife
- Russell Wilson
- 'Blue Monday' doctor
- Scott Beauchemin
- 'Trypepton' husband
- Kassandra Kay
- 'Trypepton' wife
- Ken Odom
- 'Prodigal Life' husband
- Erica Evans
- 'Prodigal Life' wife
- David Kyle
- 'Prodigal Life' child
- Richard Sheehan
- voice-over
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 9,876 feet
- 109 minutes 45 seconds
- Dolby Digital
- In Colour