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To me, this movie is perfection.

Memorable, crazy movie

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

For starters, I cannot fathom why Downey accepted this role of Clyde Pell, a private detective. Granted, those were troubled times for him on a personal front but roles like this do no justice to his immense active gift. This movie, although being claimed as a thriller, does not give you a feel of one. The story is about how a lawyer, who has everything going for him, is played by an unassuming woman into taking his case. From there on his life turns upside down. The story is about how he gets out of this mess and pieces it back again. A lot more could have been done to make it interesting and gripping but the movie shows the lack of direction & interest.

This is a good example of a film that had potential...that went wrong. I understand that director Robert Altman blamed the studio for severe post-production editing. Sorry, but the problems this film has are far deeper than post-production editing. In fact, I have an idea the editing helped.However, this is not a bad film. This is a film you want to watch if you like suspense. It has it, and it is the one thing in the film that really works pretty well. Even there, however, there are a couple of flaws. Within the first 15 minutes I concluded that Robert Downey's character -- a private eye -- would end up dead before the film was over; very predictable. Within the first half hour it was pretty clear that Tom Berenger's character had some further use in the film -- perhaps as the bad guy -- when his early scenes gave him almost no screen time...something an actor who was doing pretty good at that time in his career wouldn't accept; so, clearly, his character was being saved for the climax.Another plus here is the setting -- Savannah, Georgia. It's different, even a bit exotic, although I'm not sure we needed to add in a hurricane.In terms of the acting, very uneven. I've always thought Kenneth Branagh was a very good actor; here he gets by. Embeth Davidtz is quite good as the daughter who is knee-deep in conspiracy; probably the best performance in the film. Robert Downey, Jr. was sleepwalking through this film; or perhaps staggering through it, since this was made during that low point in his personal life. I've always liked Downey, but here he's very disappointing, though it could have been a very good role for him. Tom Berenger has too little screen time; more of him would have been preferable, although plot-wise it works. Daryl Hannah...well, suffice it to say that this film highlights her limitations as an actress. If you're a Robert Duvall fan, here's a role (as a nut) he could have really sunk his teeth into...but he also seems to sleepwalk through the part.The suspense factor here makes me give this a "7", but it's very borderline. Not a bad film, but a definite disappointment. Watchable once. John Grishom...what have they done to you?

Any screen adaptation of a John Grisham story deserves a mainstream Hollywood approach, and Robert Altman is about the last director I would go to for a mainstream take on anything. But this southern-fried pot-boiler is pretty good. While it's not among Altman's best, it certainly isn't among the films he's made that leave you scratching your head and wondering what he was thinking.Altman had tipped his hat to the mystery thriller with noir overtones before, in his 1973 film "The Long Goodbye." "The Gingerbread Man" is nowhere near as good as that film, but it holds up fairly well on its own. Kenneth Branagh is a cocky attorney who finds himself framed for murder after he gets involved with a client (Embeth Davidtz) who has enlisted his help in protecting her from her cuckoo father (Robert Duvall). The film is set in Savannah, Georgia during the approach of a tropical storm, which lends the film an oppressive atmosphere that I very much liked. The twists and turns toward the film's end become clunkier and clunkier, and Altman proves himself to be not all that adept at staging shootouts, but overall the film is not a bad addition to Altman's canon.Also starring Robert Downey, Jr., Daryl Hannah, Tom Berenger and Famke Janssen.Grade: B

In spite of its impressive cast and crew pedigree Gingerbread Man crumbles early and often. The plot is unrealistically convoluted, the actors sport bad accents and director Robert Altman's participation amounts to collecting a pay check. Once again he has assembled an impressive cast (Like Woody Allen, everyone wants to work with Altman)that this time around to the letter is miscast. But that's only part of the problem.Kenneth Branagh is Rick Magruder a high powered Georgia lawyer who in the film's heavy handed opening scenes manages to get himself preposterously seduced by a mysterious catering company waitress who convinces him she is in grave danger from an ex-husband and a loony dad. With red flags everywhere the astute lawyer plods on even managing to get his children in harms way. Fights of gun and fist follow along with a requisite car chase and if that's not enough there's a hurricane thrown in for the ridiculous finale.Branagh plays MacGruder with a mealy and unconvincing Southern accent. Running around in a trench coat in all kinds of weather he's blind to the obvious in order to keep the story going. Hipster Bob Downey Jr. is every bit as bad as a P.I. but with a little more emphasis on the bad accent. Robert Duvall as the old man is Boo Radely all growed up en crazier than a bed bug serving some thick slices of ham but at least his twang is plausible. The female leads (Embeth Davidtz, Darryl Hannah, Famkhee Jansen)are lean leggy and unemotive. Even the celebrity lawyers doing cameos (Vernon Jordan) are wooden with the few throw away lines they have.In addition to paying little attention to his actors, Altman's mise en scene dripping with Spanish moss is murky and shapeless, his action scenes comic book. It lacks his offbeat touches and observations (he does inform the viewer that the Stars and Bars still wave in Georgia)that make a well done Altman so unique. Unfortunately, Gingerbread Man is Altman at his worst, even if the pay is the same.