Kansas City (1996)

That was an excellent one.

Lack of good storyline.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Robert Altman's Kansas City is not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination and for any other director it would be a minor triumph. Yet, given the pedigree he has provided for himself, particularly with films such as MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville and 3 Women on his resume, I hold his films to a higher order than most.Perhaps for that reason most of all, I was quite disappointed by this outcome. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson star as small-time hoodlum and rich politician's wives, respectively, with Leigh taking Richardson hostage in hope that her husband will be released by the notorious gangster Seldom Seen. However, all this is simply a contrivance for what Altman is really after, which seems to me to be the context and feeling of the city of Kansas City in the 1930s when Jean Harlow movies played in the local cinemas and voting was a high-stakes gamble that if gone wrong had very serious consequences.In terms of the film itself, I would consider this film to suffer from the Hudsucker Proxy syndrome: it looks fantastic with the sets and costumes all perfectly realizing the era in which it attempts to capture. Yet, the story is almost thrown together with really not attempt to clarify or make known exactly what is happening. I understand this is Altman's style, particularly for this film, but in order to string the movie along and maintain audience interest, it certainly would have helped to include a more cohesive story line. Also, Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't fit this part in my opinion, coming off more annoying and self-conscious than sympathetic and interestingly quirky. Her dialogue and delivery seem to come right out of the 1990s and have almost no place in the setting of the rest of the characters.I admire Altman as a director too much to call this film a disaster but it is by far the weakest of all his films I have seen and makes me question why he decided to make this film. Perhaps because he grew up in Kansas City in the 1930s or he felt interested in gangsters, jazz and the setting of a growing town prior to World War II. Whatever the reason, I was frequently out of touch with the story and can really give no compelling reason to seek it out as one of Altman's finer works.

Robert Altman dishes up a terrific serving of jazz and Depression-era atmosphere in this crime thriller with film noir trappings.Jennifer Jason Leigh gives a fascinating and heartbreaking performance as Blondie, the pathetic Jean Harlow wannabe who kidnaps a senator's (Michael Murphy) wife (Miranda Richardson) in an attempt to force him into helping her husband, Johnny (Dermot Mulroney), who's himself been kidnapped by Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), a local gangster kingpin, after Johnny tried to pull a heist on one of Seldom's own. The dark plot works its way toward an inevitable and tragic ending, but as is true with many Altman films, what happens isn't as much fun as how it happens. Altman intersperses the film with segments of music being played in a hot jazz club, and the nearly constant soundtrack gives the whole movie the pulse and rhythm of the jazz numbers it's set to.I'm not so sure I liked the performance of Richardson. She plays a woman doped up on opiates, and while I don't know how someone would act in those circumstances, her performance felt cartoonish and exaggerated to me. But Leigh more than makes up for any weak performances, and she owns this film. Blondie is a born loser, a woman who's learned how to act tough from watching movies but who's not nearly tough enough to survive in the world around her. It's with a mixture of pity and relief that we see the film, and Blondie's fate, move toward its "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" resolution.Grade: A

Robert Altman was born and raised in Kansas City. This film was, by his description, intended as a tribute to the music he remembers hearing while growing up. 1934 was the highpoint of the Pendergas Machine's political strength in Kansas City, and nothing shown in the movie is beyond reality.But, the music is the thing. I heard an interview with Altman before I saw the film, and it really helped me understand what was going on. Essentially, the whole thing is structured like a tune. There's an exposition of 2 separate themes (the Leigh/Richardson story and the Hey Hey Club); those themes are expanded, developed, torn up, put back together, and finally, combined. The plot of Leigh/Richardson's story is secondary to the music. Heck, the plot of Seldom Seen's story is secondary to the music. The performances are pretty good, even if they aren't all really true to the Kansas City style--but, check out "Indiana" for as close to the real thing as you'll hear anywhere outside of a Benny Moten collection. For pure musical heaven, the closing credits with "Solitude" (Ellington) is done with so much taste by Christian McBride and Ron Carter. Pure magic, especially on first viewing in a theater. Thank you, Mr Altman!

This movie does a good job of portraying a 1930s Kansas City of mobsters, racial unrest, petty criminals and jazz, and if all it took to make a good movie was atmosphere then this would be a great film. But all this movie has is atmosphere, and it's not enough. I'm not a big fan of Altman (I like about 1 out of every 15 of his movies) but I watch anything Jennifer Jason Leigh is in, so I had to watch it. Leigh is fine but this is not one of those electric performances that has made me such a fan. I don't think it's possible to bring any electricity to this lumbering creature. I was incredibly bored throughout and only kept watching out of a vague curiosity as to how it would all turn out, but at the final I felt heavy and almost paralyzed with boredom and disinterest. I'd say this is for Altman fans only.