Director: Anthony Hopkins (August, Dylan Thomas: Return Journey)
Writer: Anthony Hopkins
Producers: Stella Arroyave, Robert Katz
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Stella Arroyave, Christian Slater, John Turturro, Michael Clark Duncan, Camryn Manheim, Jeffrey Tambor, S. Epatha Merkerson, Fionnula Flanagan, Michael Lerner, Christopher Lawford, Lisa Pepper, Gavin Grazer, Aaron Tucker, Lana Antonva, Kevin McCarthy
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 96 min

Few will disagree that over the last few years, Sir Anthony Hopkins’ performances have left a lot to be desired. The multi-award winning actor whose name, at one time, equaled box office and critical recognition has been on a downhill slide for the last few years and outside of the heartwarming The World’s Fastest Indian, Hopkins hasn’t exactly been burning up the screen. Perhaps it’s age or lack of interesting roles but the truth is he has been playing the same old, worn out parts for the later part of his career and the lack of enthusiasm from movie goers is starting to show.

Perhaps it’s the this lack of interest or maybe an attempt to reboot his career but Hopkins has moved behind the camera to bring us his third film as a director, the un-sequential and hard to follow mess he’s titled Slipstream. It’s the story of an ailing writer suffering from bi-polar disorder trying to write his last script. That would be a simple enough story to tell but Hopkins opts to go the mind-bending route constantly repeating and confusing his audience more than he entertains them.

To say that Slipstream is a challenging film is an understatement. Frames are inter-spliced with quick photos, dialog is constantly repeated or rewound and replayed, characters change and play different roles throughout and the story within a story changes just as soon as you think you’ve figured out what going on. I love a film that forces me to pay extra close attention to the details and heck, I even like a film that toys with my expectations but Hopkins’ film feels too contrived, like it was edited together to challenge and confuse the viewer and not allow for the satisfaction of “figuring it out” even after multiple viewings. This feels like it should be a cult film, with all the trappings for an intense and engulfed audience to watch each frame in slow motion in an effort to pick up the hidden secrets and nuances. Unfortunately, it lacks what other films of this type (I’m thinking along the lines of Donnie Darko and other films of this sort) have in abundance: characters that we care about.

Hopkins’ writer character Felix Bonhoeffer is not unlikable, he’s just not around long enough for us to feel any connection, positive or negative, with him. The film focuses most of its attention on the various side characters which walk in and out of the picture and even then we’re not quite sure which character they’re playing; themselves or characters within Bonhoeffer’s make believe film. Of these Christian Slater and Jeffrey Tambor put in the best and most interesting performances as a pair of strange hitmen, and the always great John Turturro is hysterical as Harvey, a crazy movie producer on the verge of completely losing his marbles.

Slipstream isn’t a complete waste of time. Though it may seem like it’s going no where, the final act is somewhat satisfying in bringing the film to a close but it fails to make up for the difficulties leading up to it. As much as I can appreciate the repetition, odd cuts, inter-splicing, pace, mood and story changes which are peppered throughout, the film comes across as the work of a man with multiple personality disorder with each personality taking over the writing/directing every few days.

Slipstream is an interesting and challenging film and I give Hopkins credit for putting himself out there with something so unconventional. It would be easy enough for him to keep playing the same old roles in the same old films but this project shows that he has more than a little innovation and creativity left in him and though I can’t full heartedly encourage everyone to check out this project, I’m interested to see what else he has in store for us.

Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for Sliptstream