- The Minus Man
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The Minus Man 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Hampton Fancher Produced by Keith Abell
Fida Attieh
David Bushell
Steve Carlis
Joseph J. DiMartino
Larry Meistrich
Mary VernieuWritten by Hampton Fancher (screenplay)
Lew McCreary (novel)Starring Owen Wilson
Janeane Garofalo
Brian Cox
Mercedes Ruehl
Dwight Yoakam
Dennis Haysbert
and
Sheryl CrowMusic by Marco Beltrami Cinematography Bobby Bukowski Editing by Todd C. Ramsay Distributed by Artisan Entertainment Release date(s) 
September 24, 1999 (Sundance Film Festival)
September 21, 2001Running time 111 min. Country U.S.A. Language English The Minus Man is a 1999 film based on the novel by Lew McCreary. It was directed by Hampton Fancher, who also wrote the screenplay. The film centers on a psychotic killer whom Fancher describes as "a cross between Psycho's Norman Bates, Melville's Billy Budd and Being There's Chauncey Gardner"[1].
Contents
Plot
The film opens as Vann Siegert (Owen Wilson) decides to turn left onto a road, striking out on a new path in life. His first stop is a bar, where he meets Casper (Sheryl Crow, in her first film appearance). They leave the bar together in his truck. Casper asks Vann to pull over at a rest stop to get high. After she shoots up, she balances her syringe on the open glove box, noticing a flask. She asks what is in it, and Vann answers that it is full of amaretto. After drinking it, she passes out. Vann carries her body into the bathroom and arranges it to look as if she overdosed.
While sleeping on the beach in his truck, Vann is awoken by a cop who tells him he has to get a room somewhere. The next day, he arrives at the home of Doug & Jane Durwin (Brian Cox and Mercedes Ruehl). He rents out the room of their missing daughter. Doug recommends he look for work at the Post Office, as they are hiring seasonal help for Christmas.
As he is tidying up, Vann passes out and daydreams that he is digging a grave. Detectives Blair & Graves (Dwight Yoakam and Dennis Haysbert) stand over him, asking taunting questions about his methods. Throughout the film, Vann has imaginary conversations/psychotic breaks with reality with the two detectives. Later, Vann is shown retrieving a kit from under his car. It contains a poison, which he places in the flask and then fills with amaretto.
Doug takes Vann to a high school football game, where he meets a star athlete and his family. A few days later, Vann offers the boy a ride and murders him, burying his body on a beach. He explains in one of the many voice overs about his methods, that he never plans out his murders and he never commits any violence. His victims just go to sleep and do not wake up. Vann also reveals that the murder of the footballer broke two of his personal rules: Don't kill anyone you know, and don't kill anyone from your town.
Vann helps the town search for the missing athlete and even attends his memorial service. His ties to the community grow as he is given more responsibility at the Post Office. One of his co-workers, Ferrin (Janeane Garofalo), sheepishly pursues him. One day, Doug drives Ferrin to the beach. The pair exchange an awkward hug, which betrays the difficulties Vann has with physical intimacy, despite his warm and outgoing personality with everyone he meets. The embrace occurs directly over the spot where Vann buried the high school footballer.
On Christmas Day, Vann goes to a diner and chooses another victim (Meg Foster). She invites him to her home, but when he goes inside, he sees that she is a painter. Something about her work disturbs him. When she goes into the kitchen, he flees. Vann eventually returns to the diner and slips poison into the water of a man (Lew McCreary) eating alone. An autopsy reveals that the death was the result of a rare poison derived from tree bark fungus found in Oregon. The poison is then linked with the murder of Casper. Eventually, the young athlete's body is found and also linked to the same poison. Vann knows that the police will eventually tie the murders to him. While he is looking in the mirror, he pulls some of his hairs off the shoulder of his jacket and puts them in an envelope on which he writes 'FERRiN'.
Suddenly, Jane is found dead by a blow to the back of the head. The police suspect Doug, but Vann is worried that the increased scrutiny from another murder will lead the police to him. During a date with Ferrin, he tries to initiate sex with her by beating her. She is terrified, and Vann is mortified.
The next day, Vann is seen playing the piano - the tune "Aint We Got Fun" - and Doug starts singing and dancing around the room. Suddenly, the police knock on the door and arrest Doug for the murder of Jane. Vann packs his things. Before he leaves town, he puts his postal uniform and the envelope with Ferrin's hair sample in a mailbox. The film ends as he drives on the highway, pursued by the same cop who stopped him on the beach. After taking a good look at him with her spotlight, she smiles at him and takes the right fork in the road while Vann takes the left. In a voice over monologue prior to this scene, Vann vows to stop killing whenever he gets where he is going. However, Vann explains that he does not know where he is going.
Reception
The film has a 61% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert called it "a psychological thriller of uncommon power maybe because it's so quiet and devious"[2]. In the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas wrote "it is above all such an unsettling experience you find yourself still taking it all in well after the lights have gone up"[3].
In praising the film, Andrew Sarris writing for the New York Observer said, "A surging undercurrent of black comedy drives us out to sea without ever breaking to the surface with glib psychological or sociological explanations. We cannot laugh out loud, nor can we feel any grief."[4] Sarris singles out Garofalo's performance as "incandescent...one of the most enticingly endearing female movie characters in recent years-witty, bubbly, but at the same time lonely and terrified of rejection." Glenn Lovell described the film as "an assured blend of Camus and Hitch's small-town classic, Shadow of a Doubt." in his Variety review.[5]
The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Marketing
The Minus Man is notable for being one of the only films to feature promotional materials focusing on the film's ability to spark discussion among audience members. In addition to the tagline "Don't see it alone. Unless you like talking to yourself," one trailer for the film showed a couple discussing the film as they leave the theater. Their conversation takes them from place to place all over the city, until the man marvels at how beautiful the sunrise is. The woman realizes she is late for work and rushes to her job as a lifeguard, where two people are floating dead in the pool. The ad ends with the tagline "Careful, you can talk about it for hours."
The main trailer featured the tagline, "When he's around nothing adds up" and touted the film as the product of "the producers of Sling Blade" and "the writer of Blade Runner".
Cast
- Owen Wilson .... Vann Siegert
- Sheryl Crow .... Laurie Bloom
- Dwight Yoakam .... Detective Blair
- Dennis Haysbert .... Detective Graves
- Alex Warren .... State Trooper
- Mercedes Ruehl .... Jane Durwin
- Brian Cox .... Doug Durwin
- Janeane Garofalo .... Ferrin
- Meg Foster .... Irene
- John Vargas .... Priest
References
External links
Categories:- 1999 films
- Artisan Entertainment films
- Psychological thriller films
- 1990s thriller films
- Road movies
- Serial killer films
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