The Cooler and 21 Grams: Three Directions at Once - Page 2

At the same time, Natalie's role has been written in yet another vein, realism. Natalie is given theatrical exposition of her background, but far from stopping the movie Bello's readings in these scenes single-handedly make it seem as if it's about real people. You may be disappointed as you feel the irony fading, as the movie gets warmer not cooler, but Bello's detailed performance is the most riveting element.

Bello has the mug-shot beauty of a B-actress in a film noir but a much ampler talent. There's nothing cut off about her, even before she responds to Bernie. We can see how this draggle-tailed woman puts her defenses in place and maintains them when she's stiffing the bartender of tips and trying to stay on Shelly's good side, and once she has opened up we see right into her. Her armor was always made of glass but her very skin seems to become transparent when she finds she can talk to Bernie.

Bello is so good it causes problems. For instance, Macy and Bello don't have the kind of chemistry that would make sense of the romance because in essence they're in different movies. It doesn't help that Macy is all wrong for the heroic romance, for the very reasons that he's perfect for the irony--the globe-eyed, "hit-me" gaze; the cartoonish silhouette and shamble; the whole peewee air about him. Given this, it infantilizes him to ask us to root for him, as if he were a heart-touching runt. (In Fargo Macy's character was totally enclosed in the irony and yet we could identify with his desperate puniness without hoping for him to get away with his crime.) Also, a subplot involving Bernie's son and his girlfriend functions as realistic contrast, showing us what Bernie and Natalie might have been with bad character on top of their bad luck, but this resonates more when Natalie interacts with the son than when Bernie does. This has to count as a defect though Bello's brief scene with Shawn Hatosy will make your flesh creep.

Finally, with Macy and Bello heading in different stylistic directions away from the original premise, Baldwin is stranded holding down the irony alone, making Shelly so-awful-he's-fabulous. (Shelly's relationship with Paul Sorvino as a strung-out former headlining singer is mishandled, and his melodramatic dealings with a soulless young suit who's taking over the casino is entirely misbegotten. Are we really expected to wax nostalgic for the good old knee-smashing days of Vegas in its "glory"?)

Article Author: Alan Dale

Alan Dale earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He currently works as a corporate tax attorney in Portland, Oregon.

He is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies …

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