Rodrigo Amaro After a new born to a new audience with excellent "The Player" and "Short Cuts" and slip down with the weird and unfunny "Prét-à-Porter", the master of the independent cinema Robert Altman gets back with a minor but interesting work in "Kansas City". Here, he reveals the dangerous Kansas City of the 1930's with their corrupt politicians, scary mobsters and people involved with all this world without noticing the danger right ahead.In the 1930's the young and beautiful Blondie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) kidnaps Carolyn (Miranda Richardson) the wife of a powerful politician (Michael Murphy) who can help her to save her boyfriend Johnny (Dermot Mulroney), a little burglar who stole an important big shot in the crime world, and now he's going to be killed by another powerful mob figure, the gangster Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte). The frightened Carolyn is dragged away along with Blondie to several places in town, trying to get along with each other, which doesn't work quite well because of their different backgrounds. Blondie is addicted to the films of Jean Harlow and she keeps annoying her hostage all the way; while Carolyn is an addicted to opium that barely gets out of the house, suffering with her addiction. In the meantime the politician keeps dealing with the case, in a very discreet way to not ruin his future election that its getting ahead and because of his proximity with President Roosevelt. On the other part of town, Johnny has the chance to know more about what the real world of crime really is, listening to Seldom's menacing stories and to lots of jazz that is played in his captivity. Besides these two kidnaps there's a subplot concerning a girl who came to town to get an abortion and a political scandal involving a party which is buying votes to win the election using of deadly tactics. The same team of writers who signed "Short Cuts" tries to unite several characters that follow the same path in several situations having as link the jazz as musical background played in almost every scene. As I said, they tried to unite them but they end up confusing the public by dividing two situations, apparently disconnected, that will meet in the end, and until it get to the final result you keep wondering what's the reason for both kidnaps. When the two parts get together it all makes sense but before some answers appear many will have walked away of the movie because everything is slow, almost tedious. The perfect "Short Cuts" which tells the story of 23 characters crossing the way of each other in a chaotic Los Angeles, in a excellent tragicomedy of the real life, gets way better than "Kansas City" with their 6 main characters. On the other hand this confusion in dividing the film in two situations makes a intriguing film that makes the audience wants to know of what happens next.As favorable points, "Kansas City" has a great period reconstitution, the costumes of the 1930's, the old cars; the music (Altman worked the same musicians who appeared in his documentary "Jazz 34"); and a great performance by Harry Belafonte as the talking gangster who has an answer to everything. Michael Murphy surprises a lot in his short moments in which he appears; the other performances are not so interesting, sometimes they are very annoying, and that is the case of the main pair. Jennifer Jason Leigh's voice is tiring and very debauched for a dramatic film; Miranda Richardson has a very aloof character, a role that she would dominate better in the great "Falling Angels".Robert Altman made a good job despite not being too much impressive as his previous works. 8/10

evanston_dad Robert Altman dishes up a terrific serving of jazz and Depression-era atmosphere in this crime thriller with film noir trappings.Jennifer Jason Leigh gives a fascinating and heartbreaking performance as Blondie, the pathetic Jean Harlow wannabe who kidnaps a senator's (Michael Murphy) wife (Miranda Richardson) in an attempt to force him into helping her husband, Johnny (Dermot Mulroney), who's himself been kidnapped by Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), a local gangster kingpin, after Johnny tried to pull a heist on one of Seldom's own. The dark plot works its way toward an inevitable and tragic ending, but as is true with many Altman films, what happens isn't as much fun as how it happens. Altman intersperses the film with segments of music being played in a hot jazz club, and the nearly constant soundtrack gives the whole movie the pulse and rhythm of the jazz numbers it's set to.I'm not so sure I liked the performance of Richardson. She plays a woman doped up on opiates, and while I don't know how someone would act in those circumstances, her performance felt cartoonish and exaggerated to me. But Leigh more than makes up for any weak performances, and she owns this film. Blondie is a born loser, a woman who's learned how to act tough from watching movies but who's not nearly tough enough to survive in the world around her. It's with a mixture of pity and relief that we see the film, and Blondie's fate, move toward its "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" resolution.Grade: A

ianlouisiana God knows English politics is corrupt,but America seems to have raised duplicity to another level.Wheeling,dealing,threatening,bribing,snouts deep in the trough....I would have to be held at gunpoint before I'd vote for anybody.In the poor black Wards of Kansas City in the mid 1930s it doesn't matter who you vote for,your life is not going to get any better,the successful politico is just going to get richer. With a plot and characters remarkably similar to early Runyon,Mr Altman parallels the development of KC jazz with its turbulent social history. For lovers of Bennie Moten/Count Basie type music the movie is at least an aural treat;for the average moviegoer,"Kansas City" is very much a curate's egg. Unless you are at least familiar with Hawk,Pres,Bird and Jean Harlow your enjoyment of the movie may well be limited to the amount of admiration you have for Mr Altman's more personal work. With all due respect to the acting talent involved,no one apart from the much - maligned Miss J.J. Leigh has much to work with.As "Blondie" she has the only role that actually develops during the course of the film. In an era when movies were enormously influential her conscious morphing into a Jean Harlow persona is touching rather than laughable. With "Kansas City",Mr Altman continued to plough his lonely furrow.That it was not a great commercial success is hardly surprising,but admirers of maverick works will get pleasure from it.Jazz loving moviegoers,themselves to some degree mavericks,scouring the schedules in a usually vain attempt to satisfy both their Joneses,should seize the moment.

Lovyello The movie was obviously a musical satire of the political and social conditions in Americain that era (and to some degree today. Even if Altman did experience it first hand, he it he obviously did research and wrote as well as directed a movie that was right on the money. I found everyone's performance to be excellent and if you could not understand some of Belafontes lines it didn't detract from his role, nor did the performances of the rest of the cast as the movie was meant to make you think............as well as be entertained. As for a story line..........unless you know nothing of the past........it was right in your face.