Passion Play

Star-studded “passion story” in a crime thriller variation: perhaps the hapless jazz trumpeter Nate Poole (Mickey Rourke) should have kept his hands off the wife of notorious gangster Happy Shannon (Bill Murray). Happy is less than happy about the affair and has his rival sent to the desert. However, Nate escapes execution thanks to an ambush by a group of Indians. From then on, Nate wanders disoriented through the desert. Then the traveling circus of Sam Adamo (Rhys Ifans) appears before him. Sam is putting on a very special attraction: The beautiful Lily (Megan Fox), with wings on her back and the look and demeanor of an angel. Nate is immediately fascinated and flees with the young woman from the wasteland to the big city. There, not only Happy's henchmen but also Sam and his men are on Nate's tail. The only way out seems to be to hand over Lily, for whom Nate has of course long harbored deep feelings... Screenwriter Mitch Glazer (“Great Expectations”) spent 20 years working on his directorial debut and brought a remarkable cast of acting stars on board for his “passion story”, which is bursting with imagination and ideas. Glazer, Rourke and Murray have been friends since their school days at Miami Beach High School. Glazer is in a relationship with Kelly Lynch, who plays Nate's loyal girlfriend Harriet. “Passion Play” is therefore a genuine friendship/family project in which the participants have dared to realize an unusual story that moves between genres. “Superficially staged as a rather unspectacular crime thriller with an unusual little love story, Passion Play is basically a romantic, modern fantasy fairy tale in a gangster milieu, which dispenses with mythical exaggerations and speculation within its simple story. Events take their course without further explanation until the surprising ending reveals the well-kept secret of the dramaturgy in a fairytale finale that opens up a completely new perspective on the course of the plot and once again emphasizes that this film is ultimately not about tension or conflict, but about the very quiet moods and longings of the human creature hoping for salvation and security. Even if the characters in this unusual drama are presented in reductionist simplicity, the overwhelming slowness of their development creates a touching intensity. Mickey Rourke also impresses here as a great melancholic, and Bill Murray increasingly allows himself to be carried away by similar tendencies. The female protagonists also impress with their committed performances: In addition to Megan Fox as a sensitive grand piano player, Kelly Lynch can be seen as a loyal girlfriend to the washed-up jazz trumpeter of the kind that everyone could only wish for. In this portrayal, too, the motif of support, warmth and ultimately salvation is once again expressed, which runs through the entire film with atmospherically harmonious and appealingly tragic music by Dickon Hinchliffe.” (Marie Anderson, at: kino-zeit.de)