EDMOND Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
First International Pictures
Grade: B-
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Written by: David Mamet from his play
Cast: William H. Macy, Jeffrey Combs, Dule Hill, Bai Ling, Joe
Mantegna, Denise Richards, Julia Stiles, Mena Suvari, Debi
Mazur, Rebecca Pidgeon
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 6/29/06
Opens: July 14, 2006 David Mamet, whose script for the film allows a cinematic opening-up of his 1982 play, is known for his unique style. The syncopated rhythms of his dialogue is as much as signature to Mamet as the pregnant pause is to the panache of Harold Pinter. Mamet does not always have original points to make, but his style is his substance. In “Edmund,” which I recall seeing in Greenwich Village as a one-act play over two decades ago and which was revived in London to rave reviews three years ago, the writer tells us the story of an Everyman, except that this Everyman does not seek salvation through God. Not for him the angelic earnestness of the medieval traveler. Instead, Edmond, who for a good deal of his forty-seven years has been living in what he calls a wasted life of banality, seeks to live in the fullest sense–but not by skiing or surfing, climbing Mount Everest or learning tap dancing. He goes from the ease of his office job at a big-city firm and the comfort of suburban life with a wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) accustomed to routine and bourgeois satisfaction, to the depths of hell, which he reaches by a short ride on the train one night. This is to be an evening in which he lets out his rage against the emptiness of his marriage to seek sexual fulfillment in the lower depths of the inner city. Under Stuart Gordon’s direction and actors who are favorites with the playwright, Edmond (William Macy) takes us to the lobby of his office building to the parlor of a reader of tarot cards. As the mystic unfolds one of the 78 cards after another, she concludes, “You are not where you belong.” If only he ignored that reading. With the fortune teller’s words imbedded in his soul, he tries to find his rightful place with an assortment of lowlifes in an urban zoo, conversing first with a fellow in a bar (Joe Mantegna) who without noticeable anger insists that “niggers” have it easy because “there are certain responsibilities they’ve never accepted.” Fed up with his sheltered existence, he tells his wife that he is leaving her. Edmond journeys in turn to a peep show, a hooker, and a pimp, each time complaining that he has insufficient funds with him to satisfy the men and women who indulge their customers in life’s base pleasures. Severely beaten by two monte card sharps and getting revenge by doing likewise to a would-be pimp who is actually a mugger, he makes a huge mistake in lecturing a 23-year-old waitress (Julia Stiles) with popcorn philosophy. The result of the encounter is tragic for both. Even the poorest of Mamet’s writings deserve an audience. He is a unique voice in the theater who has made mistakes when adapting his plays to the screen–“Oleanna” being one-such failure in that opening up the stage play to the screen rendered his sharply worded, anti-feminist notions nearly limp. “Edmond” is worth your time. However, this work, like “Oleanna,” is more cogent and sardonic on the stage, where dialogue is more important than physical action. In fact, his focal point, that everyone, deep down, is a racist, is neither proven by the comments and activities of one man nor original. Whatever commentary Edmond makes about sex, religion, fate, the want of kindness of strangers, and death is strictly sophomoric–the sort of banter that college kids might exchange under the influence of weed at an all-night dormitory bull session. Rated R. 76 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
