Company Man: The Best of Robert Altman: The Player Review

The Player (1992)

Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage for TIFF’s Company Man: The Best of Robert Altman. For more information on upcoming TIFF film series visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.

The Graduate 2, starring Julie Roberts as the daughter of Ben and Elaine. This silly concept is pitched in the opening of Robert Altman’s 1992 film The Player. Like the rest of the film, it’s humorously silly but scarily accurate to the Hollywood of the 1990s and today. Right from the get-go, one can see classic notions of Hollywood on display: sunny LA streets, fancy cars, fake smiles, constant name dropping, general artificiality and manipulation. The Player oddly feels confused between indicting these practices and poking fun at them with good-natured intentions.

Right from the get-go, one can see classic notions of Hollywood on display: sunny LA streets, fancy cars, fake smiles, constant name dropping, general artificiality and manipulation.

Studio executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a Hollywood producer who evaluates which screenplays to send to top executives for consideration. If someone wants to make a movie, the screenplay needs his approval. Since Griffin can only greenlight 0.02% of screenplays, he’s bound to make enemies. One particular enemy, presumed to be a screenwriter, has been sending Griffin death-threatening postcards. In a confrontation with the writer Griffin thinks is sending the postcards, he must face-up to the fact that he tosses aside work that a human being put their heart and soul into over months, if not years. To make matters even worse, Griffin’s job may be in danger given rumblings about another hot-shot executive coming to Griffin’s studio.

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The thematic ponderings of The Player are extremely clear: the studio executive is a pathetically narcissistic holder of power who doesn’t actually have skills, and as a result, is killing the artistry of film writing. This point is one that has been made many times, yet is still sadly relevant in 2014. Still, the familiarity of the themes makes the film less than intellectually thrilling. The retrospective value is more aptly in the fun of seeing how Altman represents this point and digs at Hollywood. Robbins’ performance plays more to mocking Griffin as a studio executive, emphasizing his lack of skill or value perhaps even as a human being. He and the film are funny and plenty entertaining, but that approach limits the impact of the satire.

The satire would be more effective if Robbins played the role seriously, allowing the comedy to come from the situations rather than jokes and performances. The overreliance on jokes and cameos systematically traces back to the writing, as every character seems to be a caricature. It may have been Altman’s intention to have the film act like the kind of light comedy Griffin would greenlight as a form of satire, but the lightness makes the film feel slight, and worse, good-natured when it wants to be biting. To truly get to the heart of this conflict, Altman should’ve examined the studio executive more closely. What background got him to that position, and as a result, how is he motivated at a level deeper than the shallow stereotypes on display in this film?

The thematic ponderings of The Player are extremely clear: the studio executive is a pathetically narcissistic holder of power who doesn’t actually have skills, and as a result, is killing the artistry of film writing.

The Player is too slight to be tremendously effective, but it can be sickeningly accurate. During one scene at a benefit dinner, all the celebrities speak obnoxiously to one another at their tables while someone tries to talk about a serious disease. This is the same behavior one sees all winter and spring at awards shows. Like most other representations of Hollywood, this scene is still shallow and very overt in its representation. This isn’t bad but limits The Player from being as classic as other Altman works.

7.7 GOOD

Robbins’ performance plays more to mocking Griffin as a studio executive, emphasizing his lack of skill or value perhaps even as a human being. He and the film are funny and plenty entertaining, but that approach limits the impact of the satire.