Review Recall: Swimming with Sharks

Review Recall: Swimming with Sharks

The last stop on our magical memoirs of the movies was the 1997 Jack Nicholson Comedy/Drama as good as it gets. Next we’re travelling three years earlier to the year 1994. A year where a douche named Kurt Cobain was pretty famous, where as fellow douche Vanilla Ice wasn’t. Also, a certain actor named Kevin Spacey was about to rocket to fame. 

Whereas 1995 was Kevin Spacey’s year as he had two little films out called The Usual Suspects and Seven (never heard of it? Me neither). 1994 was the year when dark comedy Swimming with Sharks was released to the world and people everywhere cowered over a paper cut. Does the film hold a candle to other Spacey Classics? Or is it a footnote in the great man’s career. Let’s find out. 

The Plot: Nice guy, Guy (Frank Whaley) is a young , fresh faced, wannabe Hollywood executive who gets an assistants job for one of Hollywood’s big wigs. Everything is not as peachy as Guy might expect as the big time producer, Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey) is a total asshole, and that’s being polite about the man. 

Guy tries his best to be a good assistant but Buddy makes his life a living hell. To make matters more complicated for Guy, he falls in love with Dawn Lockwood (Michelle Forbes), who wants to get her movie made by Buddy. With the pressure mounting up on Guy from both sides guy snaps and decides to take his anger out on Buddy. 

The Film: Directed by little known director George Huang, Swimming with Sharks is definitely an interesting and scathing look at the Hollywood system. Only, having two films to his name, this film probably showcases some of the director’s distain for tinsletown. 

That is because nobody in this film really comes across in a good light. While this makes the film interesting to watch the viewer never really get to connect with any of its characters because quite frankly, all of them suck. Even at the start of the film, I don’t really get how Guy got to be an assistant in the first place. He’s too much of a whiney pushover. 

I also don’t quite see the moment that Guy snaps. I get that it’s because Buddy is sleeping with Dawn, but I don’t actually believe Guy loves Dawn that much to snap. This brings me to the biggest flaw in the movie. The climax. 

If you want me to make me believe that Guy is ready to sacrifice his dream for the woman he loves. Don’t have him kill her. It just doesn’t make sense. Again, I get what the message is supposed to be: that Hollywood is bad and everybody working there has no morals, but it’s not believable in your set up. 

Don’t get me wrong the film does have some good set pieces. For example, the much talked about paper cut scene, is truly uncomfortable. But, for me the film just doesn’t really have much reasoning for the emotional truth of its characters. 

The Performances: There is no doubting that Kevin Spacey’s Buddy Ackerman is by far the best thing in the movie. The performance is that good that I would happily watch Buddy insult people for the whole movie and forget about Dawn and Guy totally. 

After this performance, it is no surprise that Kevin Spacey became as successful as he is because Buddy Ackerman is that good of a character. A performance that inspired several other famous actors such as Tom Cruise (Les Grossman) Meryl Streep (Miranda Priestly) and most recently Kevin Space himself, who paid homage to the roll in hit and miss comedy Horrible Bosses. 

That being said, Kevin Spacey’s performance is that good, that it possibly damages the movie. Nobody seems to get on his level.  Not Frank Whaley. Not Michelle Forbes. No one. It’s interesting to note that the film was made with relative unknowns and it’s only Spacey who really thrived. That says it all really. 

The Verdict: An interesting look at Hollywood and an outstanding performance by one of the finest actors of our generation doesn’t really save this film from being an angry outburst at an outdated system. 6/10

Hope you enjoyed the latest instalment of Review Recall. Don’t forget to leave a comment. All feedback is good feedback. 

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And until next time: Go to the Movies. 

Daniel Morris