2004
D: Brian W. Cook
W: Anthony Frewin (story & screenplay)
C: John Malkovich, Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Luke Mably, Marc Warren, Terence Rigby, James Dreyfus, Peter Bowles, Ayesha Dharker, Robert Powell, Henry Goodman, Maynard Eziashi, Leslie Phillips, Honor Blackman, William Hootkins, Marisa Berenson, Lynda Baron, Ken Russell, Peter Sallis, Jack Ryan
Original Music: Bryan Adams
Cinematography: Howard Atherton
Editing: Alan Strachan
Runtime: 86 min
Country: UK / France
Language: English
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital
Certification: Not Rated
In the early 90’s a swindling Londoner by the name of Alan Conway (born Eddie Alan Jablowsky in Whitechapel, London in 1934) began passing himself off as Stanley Kubrick and duping gullible people into buying him favors with promises of parts in phantom projects (New York Times theater critic Frank Rich was one of his victims). Even though he looked nothing like Kubrick, and sounded nothing like him, he managed to get away with his ruse so successfully that word eventually reached the real Kubrick that there was some conman impersonating him. Kubrick found it amusing. Conway died in 1998 (a few months before the famous director passed) without ever having served time. His victims, ashamed of being hoodwinked and having their pictures in the paper, never went through with pressing charges against him.
A sloppy film with a flimsy plot, no attempt has been made to portray the real Conway (hence the “True…ish” subtitle), who was reportedly a dour and nondescript bore with a meanstreak. Rather, Malkovich camps it up, portraying Conway as a wild eccentric devoid of personality. The film is a hit-or-miss mess and Malkovich carries it with a delightfully silly performance. Jim Davidson (who’s a well-known comedian in England and who was actually one of Conway’s real-life victims) plays the garish cabaret singer Lee Pratt, and he injects a lot of life into the film with his equally outlandish performance.
Well worth seeing despite its flaws, but not for every taste.
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