It seems that every once and a while, an occasionally brilliant film will catch my attention in the late hours of the night (or the early hours of the morning, as it was in my case); I found that film in "He Was a Quiet Man," writer-director Frank A. Cappello's brilliantly acted, smartly written satire about that unlikely hero whose "heroic" act may not have been so heroic, and in fact masked an inner rage that may actually make him the villain.

A seriously understated Christian Slater stars as Bob Maconel, a frustrated office worker whose first words in the picture have him counting the amount of bullets in his gun and who his intended targets are going to be. Bob lives alone and works as a drone in one of those big technology firms where it's never made clear what it is that they actually do, or what everyone's jobs are. Bob's day-to-day existence consists of him feeding his fish (who he talks to and they occasionally give him bad advice, fueling his murderous rage), going to work, rarely being acknowledged by his neighbors, being picked on by his co-workers, and working up the courage to go on his deadly shooting spree.

Well, just when Bob finally gets the courage to do the deed, he is beaten to the punch by a fellow enraged office worker. In the middle of the carnage, Bob and the shooter manage to strike up a casual conversation. When Bob asks why he's not going to shoot him, the man replies, "Because you're the only person in this office who's more pathetic than I am." Bob takes this personally and guns down the assailant. Afterward, he rushes to the side of the office beauty, Vanessa Parks (Elisha Cuthbert), who was seriously wounded in the attack and is the only person Bob ever really liked. Her smile could "light up a room," we're told throughout the film.

Bob is then branded a hero. The people he despised are now his best friends, including the office bully and the office slut, who would have never given the time of day before. (She gets her comeuppance in one particular scene that is all of hilarious, disgusting, and disturbing.) He gets a promotion, a brand-new office next to the big boss, Mr. Shelby (William H. Macy), and the company car. His neighbors finally acknowledge him; when one of them asks when did he move in, Bob replies, "I've lived here five years." He soon begins to visit Vanessa in the hospital, whose spine was severed by a bullet and is now a quadriplegic. She begs him to finish what the shooter started. When he relents, that's when the two begin a tentative relationship that begins to calm the deadly monster lurking within him. Later on in the film, however, troubling questions begin to arise about Bob's sanity and his grip on his new reality that he has found himself in.

As many have mentioned, "He Was a Quiet Man," seems to combine elements of past similar-themed features including "Falling Down," "Office Space" and "A History of Violence," plus a few of the artistically weird storytelling aesthetics of a David Lynch picture. Similarities seem to end fairly early in the picture after Bob first becomes a hero and a media darling. It seems that when you finally have a grasp on where it's all headed, the picture does a 360 and winds up going right back to where it started, both metaphorically and literally.

Slater was pretty good in this film; his performance here worked from his first seconds on screen, his character of office drone Bob Maconel combining elements of the main characters from the films I mentioned earlier and hitting all the right emotive notes. For years, he's been hounded by his Jack Nicholson obsession and I think here he seems to have finally come into his own as a seriously demented loner who is quickly losing his grip on reality.

While by no means one of my favorite actresses, it was a delight to see Elisha Cuthbert in a role where her gorgeous looks are only part of her performance and are not THE performance; here is a beautiful woman who freely admits to using her sexuality as a means of getting ahead in life and now she's been reduced to nothing - a fact that she freely admits to having accepted - and finally having to take things extra slow because her most valuable asset has been taken away from her: her own body. Maybe I'm overreaching or being overly critical - I did like her in "The Girl Next Door" (2004) - she can act, it's that I haven't liked too many of her film projects since '04. Anyway, when she's confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, for me, it's almost like stepping back to truly appreciate a fine piece of art. Only then, is she truly beautiful.

"He Was a Quiet Man" is not a perfect film. The script is prone to occasional slips of the pen in certain places, but the performances (especially by Christian Slater and Elisha Cuthbert) and Cappello's artistic direction and grip on the finer points of the material make up for it. "He Was a Quiet Man" is one of those brilliant movies that forces us to look at ourselves and see what makes us tick. It's funny, it's dramatic and it's also occasionally quite disturbing, but it is an example of all-around great, late-night fanfare that deserves more respect from the movie-going public.

9/10

Something that I read about "He Was a Quiet Man" called it a comedy. Watching the movie, I couldn't even derive that it was supposed to be a black comedy, let alone a regular one. Christian Slater plays a corporate drone planning to shoot people in his office one day, when a coworker shoots some people and Slater shoots him, thereby becoming a hero, and acquainting him with one of the victims (Elisha Cuthbert). From there, we learn about his life as a lonely, misunderstood person. The question remains as to how this newfound status will affect his life in the long run.

I didn't consider this a bad movie, and I don't really have an opinion of Christian Slater one way or the other. But I spent about half the time wondering what was supposed to be funny about the movie (aside from the fish); then again, maybe this sort of topic is best when portrayed seriously. It's an OK movie, although the ending did confuse me a little. Nothing Oscar-worthy, but not terrible. Also starring William H. Macy.

You go to a dead-end job day after day... every day wishing it was your last. You could quit, but where would you go? So you plan to kill your co-workers and yourself. But then, on the day you decide to kill everyone, someone else beats you to that very idea. This is the story of that man: the man who has the glory stolen from him and has to go on with his life.

Okay, actually it's only partially about that man (Christian Slater), because it's also about his growing relationship with one of the victims (Elisha Cuthbert), who happens to be paralyzed from the neck down. And if you think that's unusual, you really haven't seen anything yet. The twists and turns of this film are so bizarre that it stands as one of the stranger films I've seen in the past year (and when you watch 300 movies a year like I do, that's saying something).

Slater is awesome (isn't he always) and Cuthbert is pretty decent (though not as good as in "The Girl Next Door"). Everything about this film is good. Well, almost. The sad fact of this movie is that the best part is during the shooting. After that, as great as it is, the movie never regains the full glory of that moment. Which really leaves the viewer feeling let down when there's over an hour left after the climax. It's like the film is waiting to end before it ever begins.

If you like independent films, or films like "Little Miss Sunshine" that have an off-mainstream feel, you might like this one. I really don't know what to compare it to, which is something of a compliment, I suppose. William H. Macy also stars. See it... at least once. Maybe not twice.