Rick (2003)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Routine, slightly interesting story of "what goes around comes around" variety. A rap music piece with extremely offensive sexual lyrics plays in an office scene, early on, and then blasts for 5 minutes or more during the office party scene.Unnecessarily crude, vulgar, demeaning, obscene, profane and tasteless. Enough to make the movie a "must NOT see."Beyond that, the lighting and mood is noir, most of the characters are self-centered, rude and arrogant, and their come-uppance, if it ever comes, is only briefly implied. For a morality play, 'Rick' certainly lacks morals.

To say that "Rick" is a black, bleak, despicable and vile wretch of a film is an understatement of solemnly epic proportions, but this doesn't mean it's not worth seeing.There are great performances, especially from the always-superb Bill Pullman who - I have to say it - pulls out all the stops here in his portrayal of a man who has rotted from the inside (his wife was murdered for pocket change) and is still forced to go on living. "We can do this," is the motto of the company he works for, and this is but one tiny little irony in a film that is virtually overloaded with them, some subtle and some blatantly in-your-face obvious, but in the end, they all work, because the film is edited properly, with not one frame that doesn't belong. See it with someone you thoroughly despise.

This movie was a little drawn out, but isn't life. I think that a movie that is action packed is a little far fetched. Life is not always full of action at every moment. There are the days that drag on forever as it may seem. In this movie, I think the boredom that some have spoken about is needed to get the full effect of Bill Pullman's character. The daughter, is any normal teenager who has an insane amount of money. Rick, stuck-up, secretive... Very well played by the young actress. The boss is just a joke. I work for a corporation and trust me, I can see some young kid like him taking over one day. The part where Sandra Oh curses Rick is, how can I say, a little underachieved. She rambles on and on about how he is a evil person. That kind of curse is just outdated. I think it was a bad part of the movie. The club they are in is cool. Spy cams all over. Kinda scary when you think about that aspect too. Everyone watching everyone. But then again, that is also life. Everyone is always watching everyone. The daughter is talking to the boss, via sex chat, unknowingly, and Rick finds out. She then goes to a Christmas party to meet up with the BIG BOSS and do the deed. The whole time the boss thinks the daughter is Rick's wife. Stupid him. Well, Rick was planning on having the boss killed that night, and it just so happens he tells the man who is going to kill him that the boss is wearing a yellow ski jacket and a Santa hat. Little did Rick know that she wore the jacket and hat after her and the boss did the deed. All I can say is just be careful when you plan things. She ended up murdered at the end and Rick has to live with the fact that he killed his daughter and paid for it to happen. Life is crazy.

I saw "Rick" yesterday at Anthology, and it keeps playing in my head. Based on Verdi's "Rigoletto, the film is not afraid to mix both dark humor and tragedy. "Rick" manages to satire the corporate world and its self-centered "Masters of the Universe" types, while still keeping true to the gut level truth of tragedy's inevitable demand for its "pound of flesh." 'Rick' takes us inside a rather claustrophobic world of boardrooms and offices, where sex is played over computer chat rooms or under mahogany desks. It's Christmas time, but the emphasis here is on 'taking' all that you can get.Pullman and Stanford are loathsome yet vulnerable pawns in this game of fate. They get what they deserve. Standouts are young Agnes Bruckner as Eve and especially effective is Sandra Oh's terrific bar scene. Definitely worth seeing. I may never look at my Dylan albums the same.