Promising D.C. yarn lacks zing
Published 5:28 pm Thursday, December 13, 2007
Paul Schrader, the man who wrote “Taxi Driver” and directed “American Gigolo,” has always been an odd man out: a self-styled artist in the commercial world of Hollywood.
No wonder Schrader so often makes movies about outcasts and loners. In his new one, “The Walker,” he tries his customary balancing act: This movie is indeed artful, but it also tries to work up some old-school suspense. In this case, Schrader seems a lot more interested in the art than the suspense.
The title character is apparently loosely based on a real-life figure from the Reagan years (although the movie is set today), a gentleman who escorted Nancy Reagan and held regular canasta parties where gossip was dished.
Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) is a witty, elegant, gay man-about-town in Washington, D.C., whose “job” appears to be squiring around wealthy wives of important husbands — said husbands being too busy with the running of the country to attend concerts and fundraisers.
So Carter, whose high-class pedigree makes him socially desirable and whose sexuality makes him no threat, is an in-demand escort. In sketching this character in the early reels, Schrader has great fun with the catty dialogue, and Harrelson is a kick delivering it.
It’s almost a letdown when a murder mystery intrudes, drawing Carter and his coterie of D.C. ladies into some very mild intrigue. Those women include Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall and Lily Tomlin, all in good form.
Schrader is less interested in creating a sense of menace than he is in suggesting how the murder cover-up reveals the deeper levels of corruption in government. The problem is, if the mystery feels half-hearted, the rest of it won’t work either.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy Ned Beatty’s performance as the kind of menacing politico he specializes in (as in “The Shooter” earlier this year); he hints at the kind of movie this might have become, given a different approach.
I always look forward to what Schrader comes up with, and you’d think that the current political climate in Washington would bring out some zing. But overall “The Walker” feels a little tired, and almost depressed about its own conclusions.
