The Gingerbread Man

The Gingerbread Man
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Robert Altman
Produced by	Jeremy Tannenbaum
Written by	Manuscript: John Grisham Screenplay: Al Hayes
Starring	Kenneth Branagh Embeth Davidtz Robert Downey Jr Tom Berenger Daryl Hannah Robert Duvall
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Gu Changwei
Editing by	Geraldine Peroni
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	January 23, 1998
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000
Gross revenue	$1,534,569 (USA)

The Gingerbread Man is a 1998 legal thriller film directed by Robert Altman and based on a discarded John Grisham manuscript. The film stars Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, and Robert Duvall.

Plot

Divorced lawyer Rick Magruder (Branagh) stumbles drunk out of a party hosted by his firm one night and has a chance meeting with a woman named Mallory Doss (Davidtz), who was a waitress at the party and seems to have lost her car. Rick drives the woman to her home and there they discover that her car has been already parked there, seemingly by her father, Dixon Doss (Duvall). Rick and Mallory walk into the house arguing about the situation when Mallory carelessly undresses in front of Rick, and he then spends the night with her.

Rick wakes up in the morning and Mallory encounters him later in the day, asking him to file suit against her father because of his dangerous behavior. Rick, now obsessed with Mallory and willing to do anything for her, is successful in having Dixon put on trial and sent to a mental institution, but when he is freed by his local friends, Rick finds himself in a trouble, trying to protect himself and his children from the danger he has unknowingly brought into his life.

Cast

• Kenneth Branagh as Rick Magruder
• Embeth Davidtz as Mallory Doss
• Robert Downey Jr. as Clyde Pell
• Daryl Hannah as Lois Harlan
• Tom Berenger as Pete Randle
• Famke Janssen as Leeanne Magruder
• Robert Duvall as Dixon Doss

Production

The film was based on an original story by John Grisham that was subsequently adapted into screenplay form. Kenneth Branagh liked the story and agreed to do the movie but only if a highly-regarded director signed on as well. Robert Altman wanted to work with the British actor but only, as he told him, "If we can fool the audience by not making you the hero, by making you flawed."^[1]

Once Altman came on board, he heavily re-worked the script, giving credit to the pseudonymous Al Hayes^[2] . Altman said in an interview, "I just wanted to change the elements of these kinds of stories as much as I could. And then I wanted to stay out of the courtroom."^[1] Altman changed the setting to Savannah, Georgia, and added the threat of a hurricane throughout the movie.

For the look of the film, Altman was inspired by The Night of the Hunter.

Reception

In August 1997, after an audience test screening reportedly went badly, Polygram Films brought someone else in to re-edit the movie without informing Altman and claimed that his version, "lacked tension and suffered from an inappropriate music score."^[3] At one point, the publicized squabble between the studio and the filmmaker got so bad that he wanted his name taken off the film.^[4] According to Branagh, the film previewed well but not up to the expectations of the studio. He said in an interview, "There's this enormous pressure to wrap everything up neatly and to resist things that stray from formula. Anything that suggests complexity in a character makes them unsympathetic in the eyes of the some people, and they see that as a great crime."^[4] Polygram backed down when their version tested worse than Altman's in a preview. The studio was upset that Altman had completely rewritten Grisham's script so that it was more critical about lawyers.^[3]

Years later, Ray Pride interviewed Altman about the post-production debacle and he replied, "Well, it's criminal, their treatment of that film. There was a vindictive order from the guy who was running (Polygram Films), he was so pissed off with me, he literally told them, 'I want that movie killed.' We're talking to lawyers, but it's almost impossible to win a lawsuit. You can't prove what a film could have done. They were just pissed off because it didn't test the way they wanted it to with the teenagers, y'know, in those malls."^[5]

In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle wrote, "If it weren't for Altman's touches, The Gingerbread Man would be a mediocre thriller. Even with them, it can't be more than a top-notch genre film, but top-notch is top-notch."^[6] Jay Carr of the Boston Globe said that the film "is fun junk...We're talking claptrap here, but it's more enjoyable than it has any business being, thanks to director Robert Altman and star Kenneth Branagh."^[7] In his review for The Independent, Boyd Tonkin wrote, "It does not sprawl or wander as the Altman of old would have. Neither does it ever really catch alight. This is a waterlogged venture in more ways than one."^[8] Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave the film, two thumbs up, citing "brillant filmmaking".

References

External links

• The Gingerbread Man at the Internet Movie Database
• The Gingerbread Man at Allmovie