The Walker (2007)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

People are voting emotionally.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Don't Believe the Hype

There's something going on here but what it is isn't exactly clear. Paul Schrader's muddled thriller benefits greatly from a very interesting Woody Harrelson performance along with a highly colorful supporting cast. Harrelson is a Washington DC society dandy who escorts ("walks") married women to various functions. He know all their secrets and where all the bodies are buried. When one doyenne (Kristin Scott Thomas) becomes embroiled in the murder case of a shifty lobbyist, Harrelson steps in and nearly takes the rap. Like the heroes in past Schrader films (LIGHT SLEEPER, American GIGOLO), Harrelson's character is deeply flawed and more than a little disinterested in his own fate. Harrelson plays his role as if channeling both Truman Capote AND Hercule Poirot! Schrader's script has a greatly paced first half but then all is rushed for a tidy completion. Still, the film is immensely watchable and full of many great lines of dialog ("never get between a friend and a firing squad"). Lauren Bacall is great as a grand old dame and Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty and Marybeth Hurt are in it too.

There are certainly flaws in this film. It's a little frustrating because this could have been a great film, a true classic.That being said there were some great lines in this, really interesting performances and great production design. I love movies with themes like this. Stories that are unique and portray a world that is an allegory for so many things in our culture but says something different portraying the lives of people never represented in cinema before. I also love a smart movie where there are more great actresses than actors built in the narrative. I admire filmmakers who do it. It's a real treat, especially when it's not a romantic comedy or some 'female/family empowerment' drivel. There were three of the best in here (and Woody Harrelson really stretched his chops and I liked it).There's a few clunkers in the dialogue, especially in the beginning (it evens out later and gets good). And the characters sometimes are a little Sunday morning cartoonish for me (but it may just be style). The thriller component of this is a bit convoluted. It actually seems like the back seat passenger in this film and didn't get fleshed out correctly, which could have been their intention.If I were involved in this film I would be really proud of it. I think it's important to articulate new ground in American storytelling. While I can't say this was a home run, I'm open to the possibility that on a 2nd or 3rd viewing I may adjust this opinion. I believe it's worth watching if you like noir, thrillers, queer stuff and all these actors. And if you watch a lot of movies, but don't finish many of them, like me, because they are all the same Hollywood crap.

Carter Page III – or Car to his friends - is a gay man who works as a paid escort for some of the most well-connected wives in Washington D.C, accompanying them to functions that their husbands have neither the time nor the interest in attending. A Southern gentleman by both breeding and birth, Car - thanks to his role as sympathetic ear to these gabby dowagers - seems to be privy to more of the inner workings of the snooty Beltway crowd than almost anyone else in town. But Car learns that such knowledge often comes with a steep price, when he agrees to help cover up for one of his clients, the wife of the Minority Leader of the Senate (Kristen Scott Thomas), after the lobbyist she's been having a secret affair with turns up stabbed to death in his own home. Before he knows it, Car has become a prime suspect in the case, and when the woman he's trying to protect leaves him to twist in the wind for something she herself may have done, Car discovers just what a superficial, tenuous and unreliable a thing friendship can be.Written and directed by Paul Schrader, "The Walker" is a subtle and quietly powerful tale of a man who has spent his whole life trying to please the people around him – principally his father - but who learns that in order to survive in this world, he must ultimately put his own concerns ahead of those of others. He also has to weigh which of the three is of greatest value: loyalty to a friend, adherence to the law or the code of self-preservation. For if he makes the wrong choice, Car might well find himself being set up as a sacrificial offering to the almighty Status Quo – an entity that is grotesquely magnified in the shallow, corrupt and cutthroat world of D.C. culture.Combining a genteel Southern drawl and natty appearance with slightly aloof, effeminate and haughty mannerisms, Woody Harrelson fully inhabits the role of Car, making him supremely confident and strangely vulnerable at one and the same time. A seasoned cast made up of Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty and Willem Dafoe gives the film an air of importance and prestige it might not otherwise have had. There's also excellent work by Moritz Bleibtreu as Car's on again/off again lover who may be in over his head with some pretty shady characters who don't like the fact that he's investigating the lobbyist's death alongside Car.

Carter Page III(Woody Harrelson,out of his ordinary element and better than I think he believed he was),a product of Southern noblesse and high politics,has been living a comfortable,if perhaps lackluster and even(to greater or lesser degrees)disappointing lifestyle. Openly gay and a known quantity perhaps more for his famous name(his father was a governor;older generations were Virginia movers and shakers,slavers and whatnot)than for anything he's done or become,he glides through Washington D.C. society with relative ease,friendly with a number of senator's wives. He "walks" them to society benefits and social events,hence the title of the film.When one of his friends(Kristin Scott-Thomas,icily cool as ever)leaves the scene of a murder,Car(as he's called)decides to cover for her. That turns out to be a mistake,as he instead attracts a loudly public investigation by a one-time family rival. Soon,the crime,no matter how much it seems to have nothing to do with him,still sucks him in,as he finds himself trying to cover for his lady friend AND cover his own behind,as well as protecting his boyfriend(Moritz Bliebtreu).Some pretty notable supporting cast-mates(Lauren Bacall,Lily Tomlin,Ned Beatty and Willem DaFoe,in an inspired cameo)flesh out the rest of this story,which clocks about an hour forty but moves at a steady,unhurried pace. Writer-director Paul Schraeder purposefully makes this movie ENTIRELY a character sketch and builds story around that character,which is almost entirely Car Page. Harrelson's performance may look a little ill-fitting for a guy more known for more athletic,bravura roles(White men Can't Jump,Natural Born Killers,Kingpin,People vs. Larry Flynt,Zombieland come immediately to mind),but I think he still carries this off with remarkable poise and intelligence. The plot seems to dawdle some for something that is ostensibly pushed as a "thriller" or "suspense",but given the pedigree of this film and the material of the story,it's really neither incongruous nor disengaging.Another film that went VERY quietly from theatrical to DVD shelf,people who don't care to know anything detail about or get involved in their movie's stories can stay away from this. For anyone else,this is worth a look.