Simpatico
USA/France 1999
Reviewed by Geoffrey Macnab
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Lyle Carter is a millionaire businessman who breeds and trains thoroughbreds on his estate in Lexington, Kentucky. He is about to sell Simpatico, a highly valued stallion, when he receives a call from his old friend Vinnie who claims he has been arrested. Years before, Vinnie and Carter collaborated on a horse-racing scam. Their plan was rumbled by racing commissioner Simms, but they blackmailed him by photographing him having sex with Rosie, Vinnie's girlfriend at the time. Rosie informed the racing authorities Simms was crooked and his career was ruined.
Vinnie, now living in squalor in Cucamonga, Ca., wants to make up with Simms. Worried this might jeopardise his business empire, Carter flies out to California to stop him. Vinnie steals Carter's plane ticket and flies back to Kentucky where he tracks down Simms who is annoyed and wants nothing to do with him. When Carter realises what Vinnie is up to, he persuades Vinnie's friend Cecilia to meet Simms with a suitcase full of money to keep Simms quiet. Simms is charmed by Cecilia. Carter, meanwhile, stays at Vinnie's place, gradually turning into a bum himself. Vinnie confronts Rosie, now Carter's wife. Carter had been planning to sell Simpatico to stud for a fortune, despite knowing he's incapable of siring any foals. Rather than let this happen, Rosie rides off on the horse and shoots him. Months later, Cecilia turns up to meet Simms at the Kentucky Derby.
Review
Unlike other films about horse-racing, which tend either to strike a light Damon Runyonesque comic tone (California Split, 1974, for example) or to play out along the lines of a Dick Francis thriller, Simpatico unfolds with all the solemnity of a Greek tragedy. Adapted from a Sam Shepard play, the film features three protagonists who have unleashed the furies on themselves through their own misdeeds. "There's no running away any more," Rosie snarls at one co-conspirator. "You're in your hell and I'm in mine."
The film starts out reminiscent of Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (scripted by Shepard). This time, instead of Harry Dean Stanton's Travis wandering through the desert, the dishevelled loner Vinnie is a bum living in a rundown LA bungalow beside the freeway. Just as Travis was eventually reunited with his ex-wife, Vinnie has a painful, final-reel reunion with his former girlfriend Rosie, now married to Carter. In Paris, Texas Wenders used home-movie footage to evoke happier times between Travis and his wife. Here, director Matthew Warchus (best known for his work on the London stage) and his co-writer David Nicholls resort to flashbacks in which we see younger versions of the three leads.
What might have been a fast-moving noir thriller, touching on blackmail and race fixing, is weighed down by its own gravitas. Vinnie, Carter and Rosie are so consumed with guilt they cast a pall of gloom over the film. Jeff Bridges' resilient yuppie Carter may seem the model of the successful businessman, but from the first time we see him with Vinnie (Nick Nolte, in a performance which rekindles memories of the tramp he played in Down and Out in Beverly Hills), it is obvious both men are damned, and that each offers a distorted reflection of the other. It is no surprise how easily they switch identities.
In a drama like this, where almost everybody is tainted, there is invariably one holy innocent. Here, Catherine Keener takes on the thankless role as the Pollyanna-like check-out girl Cecilia. Her scenes with Simms, the disgraced racing commissioner, sum up just why the film finally seems so inconsequential. His response to her bribe is an offer of a day at the races. While Vinnie, Carter and Rosie tear themselves up with Euripidean angst, Simms simply isn't bothered. His indifference makes their antics seem absurd; if he doesn't care that they ruined him, why should they?
Like fellow British theatre director Sam Mendes with American Beauty, Warchus allows his actors plenty of space to develop their characters. Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte and Albert Finney, all in typically belligerent form, have their share of close-ups and monologues. There's a striking cameo, too, from Sharon Stone as the blowzy, hard-drinking Rosie, spitting out sarcastic one-liners. Warchus succeeds in opening out Shepard's play for the screen, but ultimately the problem is that the material just doesn't have the emotional resonance of Sam Shepard's very best work.
Credits
- Director
- Matthew Warchus
- Producers
- Dan Lupovitz
- Timm Oberwelland
- Jean-François Fonlupt
- Screenplay
- Matthew Warchus
- David Nicholls
- Based on the play by Sam Shepard
- Director of Photography
- John Toll
- Editor
- Pasquale Buba
- Production Designer
- Amy B. Ancona
- Music
- Stewart Copeland
- ©Le Studio Canal+
- Production Companies
- Emotion Pictures in association with Le Studio Canal+ presents a Jean-François Fonlupt production in association with Kingsgate
- Executive Producers
- Joel Lubin
- Greg Shapiro
- Sue Baden-Powell
- Co-producers
- Matthew Warchus
- Chuck Binder
- Associate Producer
- Leon Melas
- Production Supervisor
- Pearl A. Lucero
- Emotion Pictures Supervisor
- Phillip Kenny
- Production Controller
- Lynell Bangs
- Production Co-ordinator
- Amy Chance
- Production Manager
- Dara Weintraub
- Location Managers
- The Russ Fega
- Kentucky Crew:
- Alan Forbes
- Post-production Supervisor
- Elizabeth Fox
- Assistant Directors
- James Deck
- Melissa V. Barnes
- Paula Smith
- Pamela Altieri-Paterra
- Script Supervisor
- Elizabeth Barton
- Casting
- Daniel Swee
- LA:
- Karen Meisels
- Kentucky Local:
- Shirley Fulton Crumley
- Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Mike Thomas
- Additional Derby Photography
- Kenneth C. Barrows
- Camera Operator
- Mike Thomas
- Wescam Operator
- Dylan Gross
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Burt Dalton
- Special Effects Foreman
- Rodney M. Byrd
- Special Effects
- Michael Duenas
- David Kelsey
- Art Director
- Andrew Laws
- Set Decorator
- Ellen Brill
- Costume Designer
- Karen Patch
- Costume Supervisor
- Catherine M. Bush
- Head of Make-up Department
- Edouard F. Henriques III
- Key Make-up
- Amanda Carroll
- Key Hair
- Shirley L. Dolle
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Musicians
- Keyboards/Drums/Bass:
- Stewart Copeland
- Guitars:
- Michael Thompson
- EVI:
- Judd Miller
- Vocals:
- Christen Herman
- Music Supervisors
- G. Marq Roswell
- Dondi Bastone
- Supervising Music Editor
- Michael D. Dittrick
- Music Editor
- Sharyn Tylk
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Jeff Seitz
- Soudntrack
- "My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster, arranged/ performed by Stewart Copeland; "Games People Play" by Joe South, performed by Petula Clark; "I Feel Love Coming On" by Barry White, Paul Politi, performed by Felice Taylor; "Good at Being Bad" by Timothy Orsborn, Michael Clay, performed by Ronnie Dawson; "My Sisters and My Brothers", "Stuff" by Arlester Christian, perforrmed by Dyke and the Blazers; "Canotier" by/performed by Steve Marvin; "Opus 1 No 1 Adagio" by Joseph Haydn, arranged by Jeff Gee, performed by Delme String Quartet; "Divertimento No 1 Allegro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arranged by Jeff Gee, performed by Delme String Quartet; "Free of It All" by/performed by Stewart Copeland, Stan Ridgway
- Sound Mixer
- Pawel Wdowczak
- Recordist
- Marsha Sorce
- Re-recording Mixers
- Robert J. Litt
- Michael Herbick
- Lance Brown
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Lance Brown
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Joe Mayer
- Dialogue Editors
- Donald L. Warner jr
- Bernard Weiser
- Robert Troy
- James Iassacs
- Sound Effects Co-ordinator
- John Michael Fanaris
- Additional Special Sound Effects
- Carl D. Ware
- Effects Editors
- Aaron D. Weisblatt
- Kim Secrist
- Steven F. Nelson
- Carl D. Ware
- Richard E. Yawn
- ADR
- Recordist:
- Jeff Barnett
- Mixer:
- Bruce Bell
- Editor:
- Kimberly Lowe Voight
- Foley
- Artists:
- Joan Rowe
- Sean Rowe
- Michael Broomberg
- Recordist:
- Chris Staszak
- Mixer:
- Eric C. Thompson
- Supervising Editor:
- Bob Beher
- Editors:
- Michael Dressel
- Nancy MacLeod
- Thoroughbreed Consultant
- Henry Alexander
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Ernie Orsatti
- Head Wrangler
- Mike Boyle
- Horse Trainers
- Shelley Boyle
- Rex Peterson
- Wrangler
- Monty Stuart
- Livestock
- Mike Boyle Ranches
- Cast
- Nick Nolte
- Vincent 'Vinnie' T. Webb
- Jeff Bridges
- Lyle Carter
- Sharon Stone
- Rosie Carter
- Catherine Keener
- Cecilia Ponz
- Albert Finney
- Darryl P. Simms, 'Ryan Ames'
- Shawn Hatosy
- young Vinnie
- Kimberly Williams
- young Rosie
- Liam Waite
- young Carter
- Whit Crawford
- Jean
- Bob Harter
- Louis
- Angus T. Jones
- 5 year old kid
- Ken Strunk
- Charlie
- Ashley Gutherie
- Kelly
- Maria Carretero
- airport attendant
- Nicole Forester
- female flight attendant
- Joseph Hindy
- Dan, the bartender
- Loyd Catlett
- Pete, the male passenger
- Brigitta Simone
- First Class flight attendant
- Christina Cabot
- waitress
- Mack Dryden
- Rosie's father
- Kristen Knickerbocker
- Becky, Lyle's secretary
- Barb Rossmeisl
- woman 1
- Roxana Brusso
- checkout girl
- Jeannine Corbo
- ostario attendant
- Malina Moye
- receptionist
- Dan Willoughby
- official
- Kaizaad Kptwal
- Ayman Elsebaei
- Adham Sager
- Randy Cohlmia
- Arab businessmen
- Trevor Denman
- Allan Bochdahl
- race callers
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Alliance Releasing (UK)
- 9,572 feet
- 106 minutes 21 seconds
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe