Word: altmans
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...anyone watching this movie for only the plot will be gravely disappointed, perhaps even bored: Altman feels for the audience intelligent enough to accept the vital added layers of atmosphere that allow one to imagine the rest of the city not shown on screen. Many scenes start from images reflected in mirrors, as if to remind us that at any given time we're voyeurs just happening to see part of the movie's world...
...addition to the touching relationship that develops between Blondie and Carolyn, Altman (who co-wrote the story) presents lingering buffer shots of Seldom's jazz players at the Hey-Hey Club; an amusing ballot-stuffing sequence, headed by the ubiquitous Steve Buscemi as Blondie's sister's main squeeze; and even an odd story line about a young jazz musician and the pregnant 14-year-old he befriends. Rounding off the historical side are various pleasant touches: one political makes a mistake about a friend's wife ("Oh, Bess is Truman's wife!"); Blondie takes Mrs. Stilton...
...word "tapestry" is often used to describe Altman's films: characters move into and out of importance, now tangentially related to each other, now heavily influencing events. Here, there is less of this elegant dancing, recently highlighted in "Short Cuts...
...course, Altman only spends as much time on the actors in the drama as he does on what many might think the real star of the film: the musicians and their music. In one stunning, rollicking sequence, two jazz musicians duel away: the camera rushes from one to the other, then to both, and finally, plainly, gives up and lets us listen. And the eyes of the jazz musicians alone hold another entire movie with-in the movie. The music functions as a kind of running commentary on the movie: horns roar and seem to laugh cynically as one event...
...view of the film unfairly pulls apart the flowing, organic whole of the piece. If the movie is advertised as Altman's return to the town of his youth, then there may be more than one viewer vaguely envying the director, whatever the criminal underworld depicted alongside the jazz. Down to the challenging ending--which opens up a valuable re-thinking of the characters--"Kansas City" provides an intelligent feast for the eyes--and the ears...