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Albino alligator

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

When there's no easy way out, what do you do? Whom do you trust? Those are some of the many questions at the centre of Albino alligator, Kevin Spacey's tale of a trio of mixed-up criminals on the run from a robbery gone awry.

Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise and William Fichtner speed through a federal stake-out, crash their getaway car, get mistaken for gun runners and unwittingly take a group of patrons in a small southern bar hostage. This draws SWAT teams, the media and a determined ATF agent (Joe Mantegna) into a world gone wrong, where nothing is as it seems.

Academy award-winner Faye Dunaway, Viggo Mortensen and Skeet Ulrich (with really bad hair) play the captives in this cat and mouse ordeal that begins as a case of mistaken identities and soon develops into a powerful drama about the cost of survival.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Hit, shoot, bleed, lie, cuss and all with suthun accents. I just love suthun accents. I have a friend who was born and bred in New Orleans and who looks uncannily like the TV reporter in the film and I could listen to her talk all day. Hi Mel!

Anyhoo, Albino alligator has a suthun charm that almost manages to pull off a perfect film. It's dark, it's tense, it's dramatic, it's claustrophobic, it's witty, it's twisted. It gets right to the guts of some dirty little questions that you'd rather never think about. And that's good. What's not so good, or at least what takes the edge off all this goodness, is that things are a little bit too Hollywood. Matt Dillon is just a little too good-looking and wears pants that are just a little too well tailored, the crims are just a little too respectful of their mothers, the psycho is just a little too psycho, the cop is just a little too much of a cop. It's all in the details, dear reader.

But these are relatively minor quibbles, the entertainment factor is huge - I didn't fall asleep once despite being on far too much medication. Everyone has their own little agenda, everyone is pulling in their own direction, (almost) everyone is looking out for themselves. With all those different egos and all their different demands there is a lot of dissension and drama and that makes for a damn fine film.

Faye plays the sassy suthun barmaid to perfection and Skeet is great as the bar boy. Everyone else performs well, ranging from credible to good, although they are sometimes hampered by stereotypes. But go see it anyway, you won't regret it.

Security censorship classification

MA 15+ (Medium level violence, medium level coarse language)

Surveillance time

97 minutes (1:37 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: Undated 1997

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