Slipstream (2007)

"A scriptwriter sees the line between his characters and real people begin to blur"... sounds good on paper, doesn't it? I'm sure the studio thought so when they green lighted this bit of excessive hubris, especially when it was pitched by Anthony Hopkins, who was chief cook and bottle washer for the project - being writer, director, actor and what the heck, even wrote and performed most of the background music.

Wow, what could possibly go wrong? Well nothing unless Hopkins spent many a day imbibing mind altering chemicals while discussing states of alternate realities with David Lynch. Sadly, all these ruminations concerning what is "real" only ends up being a cheap cop out where the threadbare seams of a script apparently written on the fly are readily apparent. As one of the characters bemoans "we've lost the plot". Indeed!

While this film doesn't have 7 foot tall rabbits or dancing dwarves, it is very Lynchian in its approach and tone - but instead of giving you the feeling that you are watching something profound that you just aren't seeing quite right, Slipstream is like a high school play with bad acting - too obvious and a one trick pony, with little wink, wink asides meant to cover up the fact that the film is short on vision and all too proud of its, I will confess, nifty concept.

Perhaps Hopkins had a clear vision for this film, but regardless it comes off as uneven and you suspect that Hopkins may have been having a jab at the industry and fans that enabled him the opportunity to stroke his vanity. As the film fades to black you hear laughter and a bit of a looney tunes melody - some big inside joke or an attempt to say "yeah, this is all a mess so I might as well admit it".

Personally I think the film could certainly used a bit of collaboration - by allowing Hopkins free reign, he could indulge his whimsy with no-one to tell him that you can't mess with the audience by using slight of hand; passing off lazy continuity and a lack of clarity by claiming that Slipstream is time moving backwards and forwards at the same time - ok, even if you buy into the alternate reality stuff, there's still no excuse for having no character development whatsoever.

In the end, one could support the supposition that the entire film was all in Hopkins' head - a dream within a dream, so to speak - and art imitating life (or vice versa). In surer hands I think that there could be relevance here, but as it stands you end up with a bit of overindulgence that, for me, had only one redeeming moment: when the owner of Dolly's Diner makes an appearance, looking like Dolly Parton and when asked her name she winks at the audience and says "I'm the character playing the Dolly Parton look a like".