Main Cast: Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon, John Goodman, Paul Reiser, Michael Douglas
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The debut project from co-star Michael Douglas' production company Further Films, this comic crime caper uses the narrative devices of multiple points of view and flashbacks, à la Rashomon (1951) and that classic film's many imitators. A late-night slaying at a bar called McCool's is the point of departure as Detective Dehling (John Goodman), bartender Randy (Matt Dillon), and Randy's lawyer-cousin Carl (Paul Reiser) project their fantasies onto the sexy Jewel (Liv Tyler), whose boyfriend (Andrew Dice Clay) is the corpse in question. As each man spills his guts -- Dehling to his priest, Randy to an aging hit man (Douglas), and Carl to his therapist (Reba McEntire) -- it becomes clear that the femme fatale Jewel has been manipulating the smitten men for her own purposes, namely a house full of cutting-edge electronic gadgets. One Night at McCool's is the debut American film from Norwegian commercial and music video director Harald Zwart. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
David S. Lazan - Art Director, Veslemoey Ruud Zwart - Associate Producer, Jeanne McCarthy - Casting, Juel Bestrop - Casting, Ellen Mirojnick - Costume Designer, Ellen H. Schwartz - First Assistant Director, Harald Zwart - Director, Bruce Cannon - Editor, Whitney Green - Executive Producer, Marc Shaiman - Composer (Music Score), Peter Afterman - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Gary Steele - Production Designer, Karl Walter Lindenlaub - Cinematographer, Michael Douglas - Producer, Allison Lyon Segan - Producer, Larry Dias - Set Designer, Charisse Cardenas - Set Designer, Kim Ornitz - Sound/Sound Designer, Greg Hedgepath - Sound Editor, Stanford Clarke "Stan" Seidel - Screenwriter, Greg Hedgepath - Supervising Sound Editor, Larry Dias - Set Decorator
The majority of the film consists of Dillon, Goodman and Reiser's characters reciting their separate lovesick accounts of their experiences with Tyler's seductress character, each narrating over what they consider to be the real version of the recent events. Scenes are often re-enacted twice, with different accounts contradicting each other for comedic effect. For example, when Goodman's detective character is narrating, he acts as if he were a completely fair, by-the-book police officer, and Dillon is painted as a slimy, macho, abusive thug. When Dillon is telling the story, he is the innocent victim and Goodman is shown as a suspicious, prying, hard-nosed cop; Reiser's character is convinced that every woman is in love with him, and during his version of the tale, everyone acts accordingly.
Production note
Writer Stan Seidel, who died prior to the film's release, drew much of the film's material from his days as a bartender at Humphrey's, a college bar located across the street from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Reception
The film garnered mixed to poor reviews (Rotten Tomatoes rated it at 32%), with Roger Ebert saying that the film "is so busy with its crosscut structure and its interlocking stories that it never really gives us anyone to identify with."[1]
