The Player Movie Review

The Player (1992)

Rent The Player on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Michael Tolkin (screenplay), Michael Tolkin (novel)
Directed by: Robert Altman
Starring: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Vincent D'onofrio
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A studio executive gets death threats after rejecting a writer's script.

Verdict
This is a movie about movies. It's a depiction of golden age Hollywood, at least what I imagine that's like, with numerous celebrity cameos bolstering the fabricated authenticity. The plot includes murder, sex, and intrigue. It's everything the characters tell us a good movie requires. The events culminate into the perfect ending. The numerous film references are a bonus to those that recognize them, but don't hinder the movie if you aren't familiar. It's clever on it's own.
Watch it.

Review
The Player operates on at least two levels the entire time. Hollywood producer Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) receives anonymous threats from a disgruntled writer upset his script was rejected. Mill is trying to keep his producer job and explains throughout to other characters, and in turn us, what makes a movie good and why scripts get approved or disapproved. Movies have to have a happy ending.  Of course everything he says that makes a movie good is included in The Player. Mill could just as well be commenting on the movie we're watching. It's a movie he would make. The ending is anything if not over the top, but it works because the movie had been setting us up for that ending the entire time.

The very first scene is an eight minute uninterrupted tracking shot in the studio lot. Characters slip in and out of the scene discussing famous tracking shots from movies like Rope or A Touch of Evil and the MTV mentality of short quick clips. The celebrity cameos really lend credibility. There are more than sixty-five celebrity cameos playing themselves. Griffin Mill even storyboards his predicament with his girlfriend who is a story editor, without letting her know it's happening to him. She predicts the threats would last close to six months.

The Player - Incredibly clever Hollywood satire, containing everything a good movie should.

Dissatisfied at that prospect, Mill determines the writer sending the threats and confronts David Kahane (Vincent D'onofrio), offering him a job. Maybe they could remake The Bicycle Thief. The writer responds disgustedly that the studio would ruin it with a happy ending. After leaving Kahane, Mill considers the threats over.

Just to note, Mill has a fax machine in his car. It's ridiculous, but it's also completely Hollywood. Numerous film references are laced throughout the movie, and the camera often pans at the end of the scene to a movie poster that comments on the scene. Mill ends up involved in a police investigation.

One year later, Mill married the girlfriend of the man he killed. His ploy to sabotage a fellow producer worked perfectly, and he's now head of the studio. The movie his studio was filming which was part of the sabotage and he managed to "save" has completely changed with his input from no stars and a downer ending to Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, and an incredibly upbeat ending. Hollywood loves happy endings after all.

Griffins Mill states a movie needs suspense, violence, nudity, and sex. That's exactly what this movie provides. When Mill's stalker pitches Mill's murder and subsequent success as a script, the exact movie we've been watching, Mills asks if the stalker can guarantee a happy ending. The stalker can if the price is right and Mill agrees to produce the script. It is such a perfect ending to The Player. What did we expect would happen with the constant hints? Hollywood loves happy endings. Hollywood also loves movies about Hollywood.