The Minus Man (DVD)

...has decided to travel down the west coast and see the country, after his dad passed away recently. When the movie starts, we see him entering a bar just outside of Owensville (presumably not named after the actor(?!)), where he spots a depressed lady who calls herself Casper, (played by Sheryl Crow, who Owen used to date), its after he pays for her drinks and leaves with her in his truck that we realise what Vann is, though, as he procedes to talk ...
...kills her.

The movie follows him as he decides to take some time and stay nearby, where he finds a couple thats missing their daughter that decide to let him lodge with them and he gets a temporary job at the local USPS (US Postal Service) post office. As he gets to know people in the local community and gets an insight into those who are struggling, he decides to continue his ways and 'help them' with what he sees as being mercy killings, ... more

**Film**

This movie sees Owen Wilson taking on a different kind of role to his usual comedy roles, so don't be expecting a light hearted comedy, as this is really anything but that.

Instead, he plays Vann Siegert, a guy in his early 30s who has decided to travel down the west coast and see the country, after his dad passed away recently. When the movie starts, we see him entering a bar just outside of Owensville (presumably not named after the actor(?!)), where he spots a depressed lady who calls herself Casper, (played by Sheryl Crow, who Owen used to date), its after he pays for her drinks and leaves with her in his truck that we realise what Vann is, though, as he procedes to talk to her and having decided that she's pretty depressed, he does what he does to alot of people and offers her a drink, which is a sweet Amaretto drink, however its also laced with poison and kills her.

The movie follows him as he decides to take some time and stay nearby, where he finds a couple thats missing their daughter that decide to let him lodge with them and he gets a temporary job at the local USPS (US Postal Service) post office. As he gets to know people in the local community and gets an insight into those who are struggling, he decides to continue his ways and 'help them' with what he sees as being mercy killings, or more poisonings, which eventually hit the news. However, he becomes close to a co-worker at the post office and as he's given more work to do, he's left wondering how long he can safely stay undetected in town. In the end, things get pretty close to 'home' for Vann, as the wife of the household he lodges at, mysteriously disappears, leaving just the husband and him behind...

An interesting aspect of this movie is that you hear his thoughts narrated through a monologue as Vann records his thoughts on a pocket tape recorder. Two characters appear, Detective Blair (played by Dwight Yokam) and Detective Graves (played by Dennis Haysbert), when he mulls things over about what he's done, they question the killings and his reasoning and how long he's going to get away with it, pretty much. It is an interesting concept and makes you think, of course their not real detectives but rather imaginary ones.

I think that the character of Vann is well played by Owen, he was a good choice for this role, even though it is very much a different kind of role for him, it suits him as he is quite convincing, I thought, as a methodical and quite creepy serial killer, that could be undetected for some time. There is quite an 'edge' to this character, something with the facial features I suppose, its hard to put my finger on it but he portrays it quite well, in some shots/scenes its quite chilling, how he seems to be, is all I can think to word it... take a look at the photo of the DVD cover, in that he doesn't look like a slapstick funny guy but potentially quite a creepy, chilling guy who could be hiding some dark secret, I think that image works well to portray that.

Of course if your a regular reader of my reviews then you might well think im being overly biased here as im obviously quite keen on Owen Wilson as an actor but ill gladly say that if I think a movie was made too hap hazardly, if the acting is at all weak or lacks substance and I didn't think this was the case here. It could have been but I was overly pretty impressed with how he was able to carry off this change of role and as far as im aware, this is the only film he's made where he played such a character, so if your a fan of Owen and would be interested in seeing him play more of a darker, criminal type character, then I'd recommend you give this a go.

Of course its not all about Owen but like I said before Dennis Haysbert (probably best known as played President David Palmer in the first five seasons of 24) and Dwight Yokam also appear and their characters are quite convincing too, especially Haysberts I felt, as the angry and frustrated detective seeing what Vann was up to and knowing he hadn't been caught yet... as well as them, other actors include Brian Cox as the husband of the family household Vann lodges with (called Doug Durwin) and Mercedes Ruehl as the wife, who later goes missing. Janeane Garofolo plays Ferrin, the co-worker that Vann takes a shine to, who I also thought acted well as her character, who was his closest if not possibly his only friend in 'Owensville' and also possibly the person he had opened up to most about himself (but to what extent? well watch the movie and find out!) the only other character/actress perhaps also worth mentioning is the state trooper who originally catches Vann sleeping in his truck by a beach and tells him he can't stay and will have to get a room somewhere (its the next day when he goes to the Durwin family to ask if he can lodge at their house), the state trooper is played by Alex Warren.

You probably haven't heard of this movie if your not interested in or otherwise a fan of Owen Wilson, as it wasn't a movie that got proper release in theaters and ended up pretty much as a straight to video movie. Its not particularly new now either, having been made in 1999, but its still worth a watch. I wouldn't say that its particularly blockbuster material, no major special effects or anything but as a basic psychological drama/thriller that gets you thinking, its pretty decent... definately worth a watch if it ever comes on TV or if your interested then sure, get the DVD. If there were any criticisms to be made then I would say that perhaps the story is a little slow and without Owen and the characters of the detectives (Haysbert and Yokam), it wouldn't really be much good at all but they pull it off well enough. The movie is based on a novel by Lew McCreary and it was written for the screen and directed by Hampton Fancher (the co-writer of Blade Runner, this was his directorial debut), the movie was also shown at the Sundance festival.

All in all, in my opinion its worth seeing, just to see how Owen handles and portrays such a different kind of character, if for no other reason.

Its rated 15 for some strong language and it claims hard drug use, though there wasn't too much of that, just some shots of needles near the start of the film and I don't know if they count where he's seen sorting out the poison, as its some powdery substance...

This is a good, thought provoking kind of movie, he plays a different kind of serial killer than the ones usually portrayed in the movies, with, like his character says in the movie, no violence taking place in the killings and his character you can quite believe does think he is carrying out these killings as some kind of mercy act of kindness to them, given their different situations... its also the sort of movie that after watching, you might want to go back to, to check some of the details over again, so purchasing the DVD is probably a good idea.

Finally about the movie, if I walked away from it having learnt anything in general, it would be that Owen is good at portraying darker characters and that Amaretto can potentially be alot more harmful than I ever thought! (but only if poison is added to the mix lol) j/k.

**DVD**

About the DVD, well it doesn't contain any extras, so there's nothing extra to add to make it a review of much interest to DVD collectors, there are no special features or bonus features/extras, all you get with the DVD is the option to play the movie, access scene selection or change the audio setup I believe. It has just been released earlier this year (2007) on region 2 DVD and I managed to buy it sealed and new from Amazon Marketplace for just under £9 including p+p. I now notice that its available to buy new from Amazon UK for £7.97, (though that doesn't include p+p which is £1.24 for basic first class delivery). You can probably get it cheaper on Ebay and its also available on play.com for £9.99 new (though be aware of the postal strikes going on at the moment if your ordering items online wanting to get them quickly at the moment!). 

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