When David Rabe's play "Hurlyburly" opened on Broadway in August 1984, it was directed by Mike Nichols. It ran for 343 performances -- a long Broadway run -- and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. William Hurt was nominated for Best Actor in his role as Eddie. Judith Ivey who recently appeared in the Clint Eastwood film "Flags of our Fathers" won the Tony as Featured Actress in a play. The rest of the cast included Harvey Keitel as Phil, Cynthia Nixon as Donna, Ron Silver as Mickey, Jerry Stiller as Artie and Sigorney Weaver as Darlene. It's easy to see why a producer would want to bring this to the screen.



With lead actors Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey & Anna Paquin, there are four Oscars to make this an award-winning cast. Perhaps there is a great difference from a Mike Nichols production that would bring out the ironies and balance it with comedy to this film Director Anthony Drazen who won the filmmaker's trophy @ Sundance for "Dramatic Zebrahead." Whatever the reason, the film quickly become tedious and the down-spirals into a valueless void.



It is hard to deny that Sean Penn is one of the most brilliant screen actors working today. He won the Best Actor Award for this picture @ the Venice Film Festival. As Eddie, he snorts cocaine like a chain smoker, snarls, cries & puts his hand in his pants. Watching the actor bounce between highs and lows must be a qualitatively quite difference performance that William Hurt's on Broadway. Penn is worth watching. He's brilliant and makes the film worth a second star.



Kevin Spacey as the manipulative Mickey is hardly endearing. Yes, compared the other guys he seems relatively together. But his separation from his wife and family are hardly touched upon in the screenplay. It leaves Spacey with a mono-level performance that, while interesting, does not move us because he doesn't change.



Chazz Palminteri as the gorilla-minded Neanderthal Phil that can't control himself around women is utterly obnoxious. It's unclear why Eddie keeps him around. Perhaps to feel that he's better than someone else, as the dialogue indicates. But we don't really get that emotional need. Thus when Phil drives off Mulholland, we're really just glad to be rid of him.



I agree that the women are the most likeable. However, we fail to understand why they hang around these guys. Robin Wright Penn's Darlene seems too bright & together to connect with Eddie. As the waif Donna, Anna Paquin almost made me forget her Rogue character from the X-Men movies. She is so vulnerable that I felt sorry for her. As Bonnie, Meg Ryan takes the role that won Ivey the Tony, but we fail to understand why she is loose. She doesn't seem like a girl who'd have such low standards. The fact that she walks out on Eddie seems to confirm this.



Screenwriter David Rabe had worked with Penn in two other films, "State of Grace" & "Casualties of War." While Penn comes off the best, the overall effect of the story is that these are successful people who live in the Hollywood hills, but who have no moral compass and are profoundly unhappy. It was a chore to make myself sit through the entire film. I could only do it late at night after my wife had gone to bed, because she wanted nothing to do with it after the first 10 minutes. So while this project may have been wonderful on Broadway, the film version nose-dived into oblivion. Taxi!