Films Outside the Loop Jeanne Chappé

This film was David Mamet's directorial debut and he also co-wrote the screenplay. This is film noir at its very best. It is the ultimate con game and best of all...they may be conning you!

Dr. Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse) is a psychiatrist who treats people with addictive behavior and she has written a best selling book on this subject called "Driven". It has her picture on the back cover. She lives a very stark and totally controlled life. She speaks with no emotion at all in very clipped sentences. She is a buttoned-down, uptight broad all the way around. This woman seems totally disconnected from life. When she speaks with her mentor, she makes odd Freudian slips.

Billy, one of Dr. Ford's patients, pulls out a gun during one of his sessions with her. He is a compulsive gambler. He tells her that he owes $25,000 to Mike at the House of Games, who will kill him if he doesn't pay up. She talks him into giving her his gun and tells him that she will help save his life. She keeps his gun. Dr. Ford decides to help Billy by going to the House of Games to meet Mike (played by an utterly captivating Joe Mantegna). Mike is totally honest with Margaret about what he is and what he does. The necessity of dark places is to transact dark business!

Margaret then discovers the exhilarating excitement in playing on the wild side and the sheer thrill of living on the edge! What is real and what is not? Who is in the game and who is not? Is it all illusion? And, most importantly, who is playing whom? She comes alive! We all have many sides. As Mike says..."What is life without adventure?"

This film has all the fat trimmed off. It goes right to the bare bone. There is no unnecessary dialogue or action in this film. You will learn what a "tell" is, how not to use a squirt gun, the importance of not taunting someone pointing a real gun at you and you really don't want to miss the quote from "Oliver"!

Watch for William H. Macy and J. T. Walsh who have great cameos in this film.

Prepare to be manipulated beyond your wildest dreams!

Runtime 1:41

This film is available on DVD, VHS, cable or satellite.

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This column is dedicated to those films that most of the world missed!