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Hatosy is superb in evoking the kind of person who uses lying as a life strategy.īernie and Natalie remind us a little of the characters in " Leaving Las Vegas," although their situation is not as desperate. But because Bernie has always been a loser and is now feeling great about himself, he projects his benevolence onto Mikey, and that turns out to be a mistake. Bernie's history with Mikey's mother is complicated, his relationship with his son is fraught, and Mikey is not a nice boy. After a battle with the MPAA we get to see it substantially intact in an R-rated version it's not porn or anything close, but life - messy, energetic and sweaty.īernie's life at this time seems blessed, except for the detail that Mikey ( Shawn Hatosy), his son, turns up unexpectedly with a pregnant wife named Charlene ( Estella Warren). Macy, who is 53, says he spent 30 years staying in shape in case he was ever asked to be in a sex scene, and he finally got his chance. One of their sex scenes reminds me of the heedless joy of Jack Nicholson in " Five Easy Pieces," when he strutted around the room wearing a "Triumph" T-shirt. I don't mean anything like hard-core I mean like the kind of stuff that happens when the bodies involved are made of flesh rather than cinema. Macy and Bello succeed in creating characters who seem to be having a real, actual, physical relationship right there before our eyes. #A long way home movie 2003 skin#What eventually happens to Buddy has a kind of poetic justice to it, yes, but in a hard, cold way: Shelly is capable of sentimental gestures that make your skin crawl. Bernie is fiercely loyal to Buddy, and doesn't even want to listen to the new guys with their plans to replace him with a sexy revue. Or the way he treats Buddy Stafford ( Paul Sorvino), the broken-down, smack-addicted lounge singer. Look at the way he breaks Bernie's knee and then gives him a job. He can be kind and brutal simultaneously affection and cruelty are handmaidens. This is one of Alec Baldwin's best performances, as a character who contains vast contradictions. There's more to the movie than at first it seems, and what happens to Bernie, Natalie and Shelly has a rough but poignant justice.Ĭonsider Shelly. But the movie, directed by first-timer Wayne Kramer and written by him with Frank Hannah, has a strange way of being broad and twisted at the same time, so that while we surf the surface of the story, unexpected developments are stirring beneath. "The Cooler" may sound as if it's a dark sitcom, with broad characters and an easy payoff. That's his exit strategy, anyway, until he uses his influence to get a better job for a waitress named Natalie ( Maria Bello), and she repays him with the first sex he's had in a long time - and the best sex, ever. He's saved some money and plans to leave town in a week. Shelley hates this idea taking a dig at Steve Wynn's vision for the new Vegas and saying his place is "not for the stroller crowd" but for old-timers with real money.īernie and Shelly go back a long way, to when Shelly had Bernie knee-capped because of a bad debt, then paid to have him patched up, then put him on the payroll, because anyone with his bad luck was worth a lot of money. ![]() #A long way home movie 2003 update#A group of investors have brought in a hotshot from business school to update the Shangri-La, which is the last of the old-style casinos. But now modern Las Vegas is catching up with Bernie and Shelly. He is employed by the Shangri-La casino to wander the floor, bringing an end to winning streaks. #A long way home movie 2003 professional#Macy as another of his gloomy everymen, is a professional loser: A "cooler" is what his boss Shelly ( Alec Baldwin) calls him. It's been like that my whole life." How does he do it? "I do it by being myself."īernie, played by William H. For Bernie there is no joy in this, only the confirmation of something he has known for a long time: "People get next to me - their luck turns. Bernie walks near him, maybe just only brushes his sleeve, and the guy's luck sours. A high roller is having a winning streak at a craps table. ![]() The film received reviews from sources including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times.Bernie Lootz's sad eyes scan the casino floor, and he shuffles into action. Brendan Klinger as David Branch (Child). #A long way home movie 2003 full#A female counselor at the foster care breaks the rule and assists Donald in finding his long separated brother and sister who are now full adults. About a decade later, Donald becomes determined to find his missing siblings. ![]() As children, Donald, David and Carolyn are abandoned by their parents and placed in foster care by the government. ![]()
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