A Cool, Dry Place (1999)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

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.

I should have known this was based on a novel. It plays out like one. Adult drama about a Chicago lawyer whose wife abruptly leaves him. He has a young son to care for, and for reasons I missed, he then moves to Kansas (it may have to do with what I presume is a sister living there). He picks up a job as a high school basketball coach. One of his players has a sister with whom the now-single dad begins a relationship. Guess who comes roaring back into his life at this juncture. Then, on top of everything else, he gets a call from an old classmate who is a lawyer in Dallas and who offers him a job. Now things get really complicated, especially when he realizes he cannot take his son with him. Vince Vaughn is the dad and Lauren Adams is the new love interest. The wife is played by Monica Potter, an actress who sounds like Julia Roberts but who never has had much of a career. Vaughn and Adams are fine in this chick flick, Potter not so fine. She simply lacks the acting chops to pull off the role of a troubled, wayward woman. If Elizabeth Banks had been old enough to play the role, she would have done it justice. The movie is for women and sensitive men only. Manly men, beware.

Our daughter came to visit and brought the DVD with her. She recently found out that a friend of hers wrote the book that this movie is based on, so we all settled in this Sunday afternoon, in our own cool, dry place, the living room, and watched it.I was particularly pleased with the performance of Vince Vaughn as Russell Durrell, attorney and single dad that settled in a small, semi-rural community to work and raise his 5 year old son. By all indications he was doing a good job. We don't find out much about mom until a bit later, but she is alive and well, sort of.Monica Potter, Cleveland native and blonde Julia Roberts look-alike is Kate Durrell, the mom who apparently left almost two years earlier and never came back. The son, Calvin (cute Bobby Moat) doesn't even remember her.The love triangle is completed by Joey Lauren Adams as Beth Ward, young and interesting local girl who is divorced and has a younger brother living at home with her. He happens to be a basketball player on the high school team that Russ is coaching temporarily.So, the movie is pretty good, it is about Russ and Calvin trying to make it in spite of the difficulties.SPOILERS FOLLOW. Mom shows up, Russ thinks she might want to get back together, he still loves her, but she admits she never loved him and has someone else. She didn't say as much, but we assume she is there partly to get a divorce. Russ decides to take a big job in Dallas, do courtroom work that he misses, and let young Calvin stay with gramps. But mom takes Calvin to her sister in Cincinnatti, Calvin is scared, Russ realizes family is more important than the job, and turns down the Dallas job, he and Calvin go back to the small town.

Russell Durrell (Vince Vaughn) moves to rural Kansas with his son Calvin after getting fired as a trial lawyer in Chicago. His wife Kate (Monica Potter) abandoned them leaving the family shattered. Russell got a job working for his school friend and is coaching the high school basketball team. Noah is one of his troubled players. Russell starts going out with Noah's older sister Beth Ward (Joey Lauren Adams). Their lives are further complicated when Kate shows up.This is like Kramer vs Kramer but it doesn't have the same touching emotions. The kid is rather bratty and bitter. It's not unreasonable but it's off-putting. The movie tries to give him some humor with the female anatomy but it doesn't really work. Vaughn has the same feel. The three leads are great. It might be useful to see what happened in Chicago. Something is wrong with this movie but it's nothing glaring.

Here is a film that handles the crossing of roads you have started and roads yet to be taken with grace.Vince Vaughn makes the part all it could be and more. One of the best fathers I have seen in film.The writing is superb and the pace will pay off on this buried jewel.Cool, Dry Place should have succeeded Big Daddy in the box office, if Fox trusted its audience of struggling adults in a world of change.One of the best small movies out there.