Short Cuts (1993)

Chance and Luck, Deceit and Death

Another Robert Altman all-star epic, this time based on a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver.

Twenty-two lives intersect in 10 individual stories woven into this 3+ hour film. Sometimes it's quite interesting, in fact, for me, most of the time was quite interesting, but other times were perfect for a potty break. I just had trouble either relating to or being concerned about a few of the characters and their tales.

Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, Marian (Julianne Moore) meet Stuart and Claire Kane (Fred Ward and Anne Archer) and make a Sunday dinner date which both couples come to regret over the weekend as their marriages are tested.

Among other things, Claire is disgusted when she learns that Stuart and his fishing buddies (Buck Henry and Huey Lewis) discovered a woman's body in the lake where they went for an overnight fishing expedition but the men, not wanting to lose precious angling time, left the body in the water until they were ready to leave the site.

TV news anchor Howard (Bruce Davison) and Ann Finnegan (Andie MacDowell) endure the heartache of seeing their young son in a coma -- being cared for by Dr. Wyman -- after having been hit by a car driven by waitress Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin). Doreen thinks the child is okay since he walked away but wasn't aware that his injuries were severe. She confesses to her drunken husband Earl (Tom Waits).

Howard's father (Jack Lemmon) appears at the hospital after a decades-long abscence presumably to be at the bedside of his comatose grandson, but in reality, he needs to confess the circumstances concerning his own affair with his sister-in-law when Howard was young. Meanwhile, Anne is enduring phone harassment from a strange baker (Lyle Lovett) who is incensed that the birthday cake for the hospitalized child hasn't been picked up.

Doreen's daughter, Honey (Lili Taylor) and her sadistic husband Bill (Robert Downey, Jr.) party hearty with their friends Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Jerry Kaiser (Chris Penn). Lois is a phone-sex operator who is cold as a fish with her own husband who enjoys peeping a nude women as he goes about his business as a swimming pool tech.

Sherri Shepard (Madeleine Stowe) has long known about her cop husband Gene's (Tim Robbins) infidelity with realtor Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand). Sherri's confidante is her sister, Marian Wyman (Julianne Moore).

As you can imagine, there are more twists and turns and lies and traumas -- and characters -- in the few days covered in this film.

Rated R for graphic sexual language, and for nudity.