(Rated R)
It all begins one night at McCool’s a sticky-floor, beer guzzling bar in St. Louis. Randy (Matt Dillon) tends bar where a dead man is left lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Enter Detective Dehling (John Goodman) trying to piece meal the storyline told many different ways by Carl (Paul Reiser), Randy’s cousin who hangs out to avoid the wife and kids, and of course Randy. Every version is different because every man sees Jewel (Liv Tyler) as a link to the corpse but in various forms, mainly the form she’s smoldering with. Her own. Revisiting her role in “Stealing Beauty” sans innocence it’s more like “There’s Something About Mary” with a bunch of guys gone gaga over the same girl except this one is a major professional con. Tyler’s performance is minimal to the story line but that’s ok. She’s just beautiful to look at. Michael Douglas has found the perfect way to attempt comedy as Mr.Burmeister who steals the show in the bingo parlor sequence. Andrew Dice Clay gives a strong short lived performance as Jewel’s lover. The story turns the viewer’s expectations upside down and while it’s intended to attract an older audience, Matt Dillon and Liv Tyler will be what pulls in more box office with the younger crowd. Smart move on producer Douglas’s part ,whose leading ladies seem to get younger and younger.
