Movie Review
"Silver City" is tarnished, but Chris Cooper is sterling

By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic

BOB MARSHAK / NEWMARKET FILMS In "Silver City," Chris Cooper plays Dickie Pilager, the not-too-bright scion of an influential political family, who is running for governor.

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It's easy to see why John Sayles' "Silver City" is being hurried into theaters this season: It's a crowded tale of politics, set during the election season in Colorado, as a none-too-swift, grammatically impaired scion of an influential political family (named, with little subtlety, the Pilagers) runs for governor. And it begins quite promisingly, as Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper) awkwardly faces the camera in front of a bucolic lake to shoot an environmental ad — and a body appears in the water.

Sayles' best film, the brilliant 1996 mystery "Lone Star," began similarly, with the discovery of a body and with a wary-eyed Cooper at its center. But here, those eyes have the fear of a man who's in over his head and knows it — — and the same could be said for the movie. "Silver City" feels like it was made to order in a hurry for the political season, lacking Sayles' usual careful craft. The screenplay reads like a first draft, full of scenes in which characters explain things to each other, telling us rather than showing.

Movie review Showtimes and trailer ** "Silver City," with Danny Huston, Maria Bello, Billy Zane, Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Murphy, Daryl Hannah, Kris Kristofferson, Mary Kay Place. Written and directed by John Sayles. 124 minutes. Rated R for language. Meridian, Seven Gables.

And the miscasting of a key role throws the balance off: Rather than identifying with private detective Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), who's the one taking us through this complex tale, we just keep waiting for Cooper to reappear on screen. Sayles is usually a strong director of actors, but Huston, a handsome fellow with a big head of messy hair, struggles throughout the movie, unable to find the right notes. He's playing a guy who tries too hard, but it comes off as an actor trying too hard — it's a precise target, and he misses it.

"Silver City" is a blending of genres — the noirish detective tale and the political satire — but it's like oil and water; the two never quite converge. Characters, like Maria Bello's reporter (and Danny's former love), drop out of the movie for lengthy periods of time; others, like Kris Kristofferson's ghostly magnate and Daryl Hannah's pothead archer (the candidate's sister), make fleeting appearances.

The movie's so crowded, the story becomes strangled, and the political message Sayles is clearly aiming for loses its bite.

But it's worth seeing, if only for Cooper's performance. A marvelous actor who's made an art out of playing laconic loners (he won a long-deserved Oscar last year for "Adaptation"), he gets to exercise his comedic chops here, to fine effect. Dickie Pilager speaks in carefully rehearsed sound bites, with ever-so-telling pauses. ("Thank you for joining me in this ... effort," he says, nearly falling down a verbal hole.) He's never really thought about what he's talking about, and sometimes he realizes that, mid-sentence. When he says things like "let's keep the infrastructure in place where it belongs," you see the hint of desperation in his eyes — he's an emperor with no clothes, and he's shivering.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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