Kansas City

Kansas City is set during the Depression, when cheating and deception are the order of the day. The small-time crook Johnny makes the mistake of robbing one of the well-heeled clients of the black gangster king and gambling-den owner Seldom Seen. Seldom's men soon come for Johnny, so Johnny's sharp-witted girl Blondie realises that if she is ever to hope to see Johnny again, she must take action. Blondie kidnaps the opium-addicted Carolyn, who is married to one of Kansas City's most powerful politicians. In return for getting his wife back, he must help Blondie's man.

The kaleidoscopic, jumpy structure characteristic of Robert Altman's films is also prominent in Kansas City, but both the milieu and the characterisation leave something to be desired when one has little masterpieces like "Short Cuts" and "The Player" in mind, and it is not only because I do not care for sequences in which the jazz music and musicians are the focus. In fact, the two female leads are a pair of irritating acquaintances. Miranda Richardson convinces as the stoned rich man's wife, but I never really worked out where she stood. Jennifer Jason Leigh overacts for all she is worth as the sulky Blondie, who so wants to look like Jean Harlow. She is probably the closest the film comes to an actual protagonist, but unfortunately her character left me completely cold. So I was more or less indifferent when she and Johnny both die at the end. Enabling the audience to empathise with the fictional characters is perhaps not Altman's strongest suit, but in Kansas City, which does not have an awful lot else to offer, this shortcoming becomes ruinous for the film. Come on, old man!