NateWatchesCoolMovies What the hell did just watch. Oh boy, what can I say about this one without tearing it a new one. Alan Rudolph's Trixie is a dud, a paperweight, a misguided, clumsy disaster of the highest order. It has the tonal equilibrium of heart attack on a flow chart, and a troupe of actors who mercilessly embarrass themselves into the ground with work that goes beyond tireless pantomime. It's sad, because I've seen this type of thing work nicely before, with the right amounts of quaint and quirky qualities, but here the mixture tanks in a god awfully messy cannonball of a landing. It tries to be a detective story, but fails to realize that you need some semblance of a story to care about, and I just…. didn't care. It's a slog to get through, a struggle to stay focused on, and basically a big awkward failure on every level. Also puzzling is the fact that cast, all of which are excellent actors who I love in almost everything they do, all made me want to hit them here, and when you've got a cast this good, that's no easy feat. Emily Watson will make you want to tear your hair out as titular Trixie, a casino security guard with aspirations of taking on a big detective case, an irritating Chicago accent and apparently mild brain damage that causes her to mispronounce every expression, figure of speech and slang term in a fashion that is neither cute nor funny. She's wooed by Dex (Dermot Mulroney) a goon who works for sleazy land developer Red Rafferty (Will Patton). Soon, through a set of circumstances both inane and cartoonish, they find themselves deep in some sort of backhanded scheme involving murder most foul, tied to a corrupt state senator played by Nick Nolte, who is the peacock of the bunch, sucking all the energy out of the room with dialogue that is literally lifted straight from political speeches from the past. I'm not even kidding, he blusters out platitudes that vaguely have a place in whatever seen is going on, but barely. There's also a hot young waitress (a bouncy Brittany Murphy), a flamboyant lounge singer (Nathan Lane is excruciating), a washed up pop star (Lesley Ann Down) and a bizarre cameo from Stephen Lang who attempts an accent that made me supremely uncomfortable. It's weird, cumbersome and altogether pointless as everything it tries: comedy, thriller, romance, whodunit.. all fall miserably flat. Bummer. I'm gonna go make a list of all the things I could have been doing with the two hours I spent on this wreck.

helpless_dancer Although Trixie had a certain goofy appeal, especially her reversal or confusion of certain words and phrases, I found the film way too slow moving. It was well enough done and not a complete waste of time but it tried too hard to be comedy and drama winding up being just a mishmash of silly dark comedy.

curlyqueue This movie has grown on me immensely. The first time I saw it, it struck me poorly. I didn't like the plot or characters. I've seen it twice since then. I was surprised to find how funny it was a second time. Truth be told, Trixie is the sweetest detective ever written. She's obsessed with the truth and lives by no other code, solving the case almost by accident. There is a sexy all star cast to back her up and they all play magnificently. The real joke of the movie is Trixie's ability to get well known sayings wrong, which is explained by her injury as a child from a bowling ball on the head (mentioned very quickly in a hospital scene). She says things like, "Stop right there where you are in your tracks!" Her timing is perfect and Ms. Watson's performance is endearing. Good show, all around.

hprill What were they thinking when they made this movie? There's not enough action in this to make it an action movie, not enough character development to make it a character movie, not enough fun to make it a comedy. It's barely got enough plot to make it a movie at all, but only barely.The dialogues are mostly tedious, the malapropisms are not funny, and the red herrings are fishy.Emily Watson gets a couple of points for cuteness, but cuteness doesn't make a movie. A major disappointment. Alan Rudolph has done much better than this.