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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Daniel Handler (writer)
Tagline:
Envy, lust, murder...business as usual.
Plot:
"Rigoletto" retold at Christmas time in Manhattan's corporate world. Rick, an executive at Image, is a jerk to a woman applying for a job... more | add synopsis
Awards:
1 win more
NewsDesk:
(6 articles)
AFF09 Daily Dispatch: Day Five
(From Slackerwood. 27 October 2009, 7:00 AM, PDT)
Ask the Flying Monkey! (October 5, 2009)
(From AfterElton.com. 4 October 2009, 7:44 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
A dark comedy worth seeing more (21 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Bill Pullman | ... | Rick O'Lette | |
| Aaron Stanford | ... | Duke | |
| Agnes Bruckner | ... | Eve O'Lette | |
| Sandra Oh | ... | Michelle | |
| Dylan Baker | ... | Buck | |
| Emmanuelle Chriqui | ... | Duke's Long-Suffering Wife | |
| Marianne Hagan | ... | Laura | |
| Jerome Preston Bates | ... | Lobby Guard | |
| Jamie Harris | ... | Mick | |
| Paz de la Huerta | ... | Vicki | |
| Marin Rathje | ... | Mrs. O'Lette in Picture | |
| William Ryall | ... | Rick's Doorman | |
| Daniel Handler | ... | Perky Waiter | |
| Dennis Parlato | ... | BusinessTalk Anchor | |
| P.J. Brown | ... | Jack Lantern |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for sexual content and language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
Canada:100 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | USA:100 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Rick takes his daughter to dinner at Verdi's, a restaurant named after the composer of 'Rigoletto', the opera from which the movie is drawn. While they dine, the music playing in the background is "La donna è mobile", the Duke's aria from the last act of the opera. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Buck gives his business card to Rick, it has a '666' phone number, but when Rick uses the business card in Eve's bedroom to set up the hit, the phone number starts with '555'. more
Quotes:
Michelle:
Okay, you can do this Rick. You can humiliate me, and mock me, and insult me and get me fired.
Rick O'Lette:
Look I didn't know...
Michelle:
But you know what? You're still an evil person, Rick. You hurt an innocent person and you will pay for it. I curse you Rick. You're an evil person with an evil soul, and it'll come back to you, it will come right back at you. I curse you, Rick O'Lette. It will come right back at you.
more
Movie Connections:
Features American Psycho (2000) more
Soundtrack:
Great Wooden Bridge more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (21 total)
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If you go to the movies to feel good about life, to feel all warm and fuzzy about the world around you, then "Rick" isn't for you. However, if you delight in stories that revel in the darker side of human nature, that have a nasty sense of humor, then this incredibly dark comedy might be just the film for you.
Based on Verdi's opera, "Rigoletto," editor-turned-director Curtiss Clayton brings to life a script by Daniel Handler, better known to audiences as the "Lemony Snicket" author. In "Rick," Bill Pullman plays the title character, a man who works at a company called Image, though we're never told what exactly he or the company do. His boss Duke, almost half Rick's age, engages in machismo talk and has a penchant for online chats on a porn I'm service.
To reveal more would be to destroy much of the fun of this very wicked film.
"Rick" actually goes way beyond dark comedy. Pullman gains tremendous glee from playing someone loathsome. Come to think of it, with the exception of Rick's teen-age daughter Eve (played by the marvelously talented young actress Agnes Bruckner), there really aren't any likable people in this movie.
And Eve, who's the only one who sees the good in her dad, isn't exactly squeaky clean. She gets her kicks by "talking" dirty on the Internet. Bruckner, whose depiction of an emotionally scarred high school student in "Blue Car" was one of last year's highlights, finds just the right mix of confidence and innocence to make Eve believable.
Often, it is hard to be absorbed by a film where none of the characters seems to have any redeeming virtues. But, strangely, "Rick" manages to hook us. Mostly because we're initially intrigued by who these people are and why they behave so despicably. Watching Rick berate a woman interviewing for a job is uncomfortable. Yet, there's something hypnotic about the whole sequence.
This is extremely broad social satire veering into the absurd. This film is filed with several odd moments. The interview aside, there's the initial macho gamesmanship between Rick and Duke (played by Aaron Stanford as a slimy creature, quite a departure from playing 15-year-old Oscar Grubman in "Tadpole"). Then there's Buck (Dylan Baker), who meets Rick in a bar where people spy on other patrons. Buck tells Rick he runs his own company. There's a funny joke about that when Rick sees Buck's business card.
"Rick" is by no means a perfect dark comedy. But it definitely has a strange way of keeping you interested in its characters. They may not be likable but, damn it, they're most certainly intriguing and captivating. If you're in the mood for something out of the ordinary and you relish films that dabble in morally decrepit people, give "Rick" a peek. I've seen better films this year, but this one will stick in my mind for a long time.