The Big White *** (2005, Robin Williams, Giovanni Ribisi, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson, Tim Blake Nelson, W Earl Brown) – Classic Movie Review 4518

In Alaska, cash-strapped travel agent Paul Barnel (Robin Williams) stumbles across a frozen corpse and tries to pass it off as his missing, presumed-dead brother Raymond to claim the $1 million insurance payoff. But then he finds big trouble when crazy hitmen Gary and Jimbo (Tim Blake Nelson and W Earl Brown) want the body back and kidnap his wife Margaret (Holly Hunter). And then he finds bigger trouble when dogged insurance investigator Ted Waters (Giovanni Ribisi) sets out to expose him.

The actors are obviously relishisg their over-the-top parts in director Mark Mylod’s well-concocted, exuberant, and quite stylish 2005 black comedy crime thriller that plays like screenwriter Collin Friesen wrote it as a hastily penned sequel to Fargo (1996).

Williams is amusing, if perhaps coasting a little bit, while Holly Hunter too strident as his wife Margaret, leaving an expertly weird Ribisi to steal all the acting honours. But Woody Harrelson is way over the top and easily the worst thing in the movie as the bad penny brother Raymond who finally turns up alive and after the money himself.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4518

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