Word: vann
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...DIED. C. VANN WOODWARD, 91, Pulitzer-prizewinning historian and perceptive chronicler of the post-Civil War South; in Hamden, Conn. He was perhaps best known for The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955), which argued that segregation in the South was a fairly recent phenomenon and thus could be undone...
...problem, however, is that this real Vann is never established. All we can know of him must be salvaged from the heaps of inner monologue and inexplicable behavior that the creators have thrown in as unnecessary complication. Sweet Vann is nothing more than a muddle of ambiguous symbolism and cryptic hallucinations--supposed fodder for post-movie conversation and analysis...
Happening upon a quiet town, Vann quickly befriends masochistic Doug (Brian Cox) and his wife, Jane (Mercedes Ruehl), who allow him to rent the room of their missing daughter. It doesn't take long for the tender-faced psychotic to become like a son to the unhappy couple or for him to get a job or a girlfriend (Janeane Garofalo). There are a few touching or darkly humorous scenes in Vann's quest to be the quintessential son, employee and sweetheart. But alas, they are lost among an irritating and unnecessary interrogation that takes place between our hero...
...filmmakers should have used the time they devoted to excessive complication to solidify the characters and their respective motivations. The Minus Man would have the potential to be a mysterious thriller or an exciting slasher flick if Vann weren't one of the dullest murderers ever to grace the silver screen. His banality isn't due to poor acting--Wilson plays his role with flair. The problem is the filmmakers don't reveal enough--Vann, after two and a half hours of character exposition, is still frustratingly vague...
...film, director/screenwriter Hampton Fancher has our gentle killer relate a favorite anecdote in which a spider climbs into his ear only to climb back out. "Nobody home" is the punch line he delivers, flashing his trademark smile. These scenes are so important because the filmmakers want to portray Vann as a "zero," a nothing--a "nobody home" type of guy. He is merely a reflection of whatever others want him to be: a son to an unhappy old couple; a buddy to a high school football star; Mr. Right to an unmarried postal worker. Yet Fancher also wants the audience...