**½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras B
starring Matt Dillon, James Caan, Natascha McElhone, Gérard Depardieu
screenplay by Matt Dillon & Barry Gifford
directed by Matt Dillon
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover It pains me to have to pan something as accomplished as Matt Dillon's directorial debut City of Ghosts. On a technical level, the film is unimpeachable, moving at a comfortable click and remarkably seamless in its creation and assembly; it's not genius, perhaps, but it's certainly capable and, considering that it's a first feature, surprisingly at ease with the mechanics of image-making. Alas, image-making is not the only criteria by which we judge a movie, and so it must be regretfully said that the story that City of Ghosts has to tell is at best condescending and at worst casually racist, with a tourist's eye for the Phnom Penh setting viewing one more Marlow looking for his Kurtz.
Dillon also stars as Jimmy, the manager of a bogus insurance company with no intention of paying for damages. When a hurricane leaves many of his policyholders homeless, Jimmy flees to Cambodia to track down the company's bigwig, his elusive mentor, Marvin (James Caan). He has other problems to take care of first, though, such as the disappearance of his passport and his unpopularity with a local group of toughs. When Jimmy finally does locate his major-domo, he finds him scheming a giant-sized job: the erection of a massive casino for foreign tourists. But with the number of politicians, ex-generals and thugs floating around, who's to say what's actually being done?
Dillon's mastery of film form goes well beyond that of other hyphenate actor-directors, and he has very little difficulty in building the mood of the piece. Aided by co-writer Barry Gifford, Dillon seamlessly brings the disparate pieces of Phnom Penh together: the community of dazed ex-pats wondering how they got there; the cyclo drivers, represented by Sok (Kem Sereyvuth), who cheaply administer to paying customers; the whorehouse full of indentured servants; and the corrupt money that is everywhere. Gifford and Dillon reel off the list of sites and details without making it seem like a list, and Dillon's keen eye and editorial flair keep the picture flowing. With the exception of architectural preservationist/romantic fantasy Sophie (Natascha McElhone), everything fits seamlessly into the film's conception.
However well-meaning, that conception is unfortunately so rooted in an outsider's perspective that it trips over its feet, with disastrous consequences. For all of its tsk-tsk-ing over the underdeveloped hell of Cambodia, City of Ghosts can't find a single positive character in all of Phnom Penh beyond the obsequious Man Friday of Sok and the occasional prostitute, making whatever altruistic intentions Dillon might have crumble into dust. The film doesn't even try to imagine the country beyond its corrupt infrastructure, and in so doing dehumanizes it; though liberal guilt dictates a financial peace offering at the picture's close, it's too little, too late–taking some promising filmmaking down the spout with it.
MGM's 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of City of Ghosts is first-rate. The image is extremely sharp, and colours are vivid without bleeding–the palette of tans, ochres and olives come through with both remarkable definition and superb shadow detail. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is almost as good: although the rear speakers are often silent, the times they are used they are used extremely creatively, as when a Buddhist chant revolves 180 degrees from rear left to rear right and back again.
Extras are sparse but acceptable. A commentary track with Dillon and co-writer Barry Gifford is a tad light on actual aesthetic information–it's basically confined to praising the actors and production team, but the pair provides some interesting background on Phnom Penh life, and there are a few surprises about the genesis of certain scenes and the non-actors collected to play various supporting roles. A soundtrack spot, some studio propaganda promoting MGM as an acronym for "means great movies," and trailers for "Dead Like Me", It Runs in the Family, Bulletproof Monk, Together, and Nicholas Nickleby round out the disc.
117 minutes; R; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; CC; English, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; MGM
