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City of Ghosts

As you'll notice with roughly 85-90% of movies these days, the first 15-20 minutes of the film are dedicated to establishing the story. It's the period where we are introduced to the characters, setting, and sometimes the rough beginings of a plot. City of Ghosts, however, spends almost a record-setting 45 minutes meandering through establishment until we finally get a hint of a plot.

As the movie begins, we're introduced to a character named Jimmy Cremming (Matt Dillon), who's involved in a fraudulent scheme where his company sells disaster insurance to customers with no intentions of paying the claims. After a ravaging hurricane sweeps through and clobbers many of the customers' households, the company owner, a 'non-existant' person, suddenly pulls all of the companys money out from their off-shore accounts and leaves the customers to fend for themselves. After interrogation from the FBI, Jimmy quickly sets out to leave the country and find his associate, who happens to be the brains behind the operation, Marvin (James Caan), and inform him that the jig is up.

Well it turns out that Marvin is located somewhere in Cambodia in order to pursue a casino investment. After bouncing from here to there and meeting with severial other associates and contacts, Jimmy finally links up with Marvin to break the news that the FBI was onto them. Marvin, enveloped in his canino idea, simply gives Jimmy a pat on the back (an a large briefcase full of money) and tries to get him involved on his new scheme. Jimmy declines, and all seems well until the Russian mob (who Marvin had partnered with and decieved in the fraudulent insurance plan) track him down to Cambodia to kill him.

City of Ghosts runs almost 3 hours in length and certainly has enough of a laddering storyline to keep most viewers interested. Caan was born for his role as Marvin and really makes the film so much more enjoyable to watch. But even with upbeat and interesting characters like Marvin, the whole movie just never really rose above it's murky mood and seems really desolate at times. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons I got into this film so much, despite it's flaws (thin plot, lengthy durration, multiple conclusions, being advertised as the "Sundance Film Festival Winner," etc.).

I'd certainly recommend it.