Cookie’s Fortune *** (1999, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O’Donnell) – Classic Movie Review 1594

Welcome to Holly Springs, Mississippi… home of murder, mayhem and catfish enchiladas.

Director Robert Altman is in surprisingly blunt, indulgent and benign mood produces a slack, hollow-centred 1999 comedy thriller film that’s fairly amusing, enjoyable and entertaining none the less, even though you don’t believe a word of it.

Patricia Neal is superb as Cookie Orcutt, the local old eccentric Mississippi matriarch who commits suicide – far too early on for the film’s good. But Glenn Close overplays her hand as the bossy, greedy theatre director Camille Dixon, who, for the sake of the inheritance, interferes dangerously in everything, including the aftermath of the suicide, with perilous results.

Chris O’Donnell is a dumb cop, Julianne Moore is Camille’s incredibly shy younger sister Cora, and Liv Tyler plays a kindly relative, Cora’s estranged daughter Emma who has just returned to town. But the best performance after Neal’s comes from Charles S Dutton as the old lady’s confidant, who is accused of murdering her.

Ned Beatty, Courtney B Vance, Donald Moffat, Lyle Lovett, Danny Darst and Matt Malloy also co-star.

Altman died on November 20, 2006, aged 81. Patricia Neal died on August 8, 2010, aged 84.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1594

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