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Simpatico - Matthew Warchus, Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sharon Stone
Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
Sex. Money. Betrayal.
Set in the fast-paced world of thoroughbred racing, Simpatico is the story of a high-stakes deception and the ultimate price paid for a friendship bound by betrayal. Having made a career out of playing the odds, best friends Lyle Carter (Jeff Bridges) and Vinnie Webb (Nick Nolte) and Vinnie's then-girlfriend Rosie (Sharon Stone) hatch a plan to execute the ultimate score. The plan goes awry when Lyle and Rosie run off together with their take. Partners in crime, the three find themselves bound by a secret and yet divided by a betrayal of the heart. Twenty years later, Vinnie is back to settle the score and not even he realises the price they will all pay for their deception.
Also starring Catherine Keener and Albert Finney. Written by Matthew Warchus and David Nicholls, from the play by Sam Shepard, directed by Matthew Warchus.
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Simpatico official movie site
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Sim·pa·ti·co: adj.
- of like mind or temperament; compatible.
- having attractive qualities; pleasing.
Like the best characters from Sam Shepard's other plays, Lyle, Rosie and Vinnie are all damaged goods with no return address. They're caught in a web of their own devising, so old and tangled that there's no way out of the sticky mess. They are tied so closely together that every twitch of a limb, every blink of an eye results in a sympathetic blink or twitch from the others.
Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte give such dense performances that sometimes it's impossible to understand what they're doing or why they're doing it but Sharon Stone absolutely soaks up her character, like a lush with a bottle of gin. She has tragedy written on every look, every move, every pained breath. There are some parts of Simpatico that are very obviously taken verbatim from the stage play - most notably the scenes in Vinnie's California dive - but they don't detract too much from the narrative, which is a full-on, take-no-prisoners onslaught. The gradual discovery of everyone's motivations keeps you hanging on for more where a lesser film would have you reaching for the remote.
If you need to finish off a bottle of red and reflect on the pathetic uselessness of life then Simpatico is the film with which to do it.
Security censorship classification
M (Adult themes, low level coarse language)
Surveillance time
106 minutes (1:46 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 7 March 2001
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