Confessions of a Dangrous Mind
directed by George Clooney
screenplay by Charlie Kaufman based on the book by Chuck Barris
starring Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Drew Barrymore

        In 1982, television game show producer Chuck Barris released his "unauthorized autobiography", shocking readers with the profession that he was a hitman for the CIA.  While there was no way to prove the fact, all his connections having been killed, he described convincing yet unbelievable accounts of assassinating people around the world using prize vacations from "The Dating Game" as a front.  He even claims that the idea for "The Newlywed Game" came from an interrogation demonstration during his operative training sessions. 
        Who better to adapt the book for the big screen than Charlie Kaufman, who has made surreal fun fictionalizing real people in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.  And yet, here, the most absurd plot points are not of Kaufman's device.  According to Barris, the only additions to the film are references to his real father being a serial killer and of being raised as a girl.  Everything else is supposedly true regardless of the film's deep tone of subtle mockery.
         The film begins with Barris (Rockwell) describing his first sexual experience and subsequent dissolution with women.  He gets whatever jobs he can that are associated with television in his hopes of becoming famous, something he seems to believe will get him laid.  He meets a hippie girl named Penny (Barrymore) who is also free about sex, and they pursue a comprising yet difficult relationship.
         Meanwhile, Barris develops a pilot of "The Dating Game" for ABC but the show is not picked up.  Feeling like a failure he jumps at a chance to serve his country when the mysterious Jim Byrd (Clooney) recruits him as a contracted killer.  Then his game show is given another chance and becomes a huge success leading to other hits, including "The Gong Show".  He continues to make hits for the government as well, even devising game show ideas like "Operation: Entertainment" as a cover for his trips around the world. 
        The idea of Barris' double life can be seen as an excuse for many problems he felt his life included, and Kaufman's screenplay makes them apparent without putting a spotlight on the deductions.  Did Barris make up his secret world because he realized his accomplishments weren't interesting enough for a book?  Was he making a parody out of the excuses people use for their infidelty?  When Chuck and Penny are having dinner in one scene, a spy (Roberts) who he is having an affair with shows up and he has great trouble with how to explain her. 
        There is also great irony, relevance and timeliness to the story of Chuck Barris being the father of reality television.  All of the current dating programs owe a lot to his conceptions and just the other day it became obvious to me how similar the "American Idol" auditions were to "The Gong Show".  In the end, many critics blamed Barris for the downfall of television and its exploitation of regular people and their desires for fame.  After all, he knew the desire well, and made it easy and popular for others to claim their own 15 minutes by making complete fools of themselves.  Perhaps Chuck Barris feels guilty for the death of America as much as he could feel guilty for the deaths of those he has assassinated. 
       The major differences between source and adaptation are in the fine line the film takes in its belief in the material.  Chuck Barris wrote his story with deadpan seriousness.  George Clooney, in his directorial debut, shoots the picture as if it’s a dream with a bit of uneasiness and unevenness in Newton Thomas Sigel's photography.  And yet the performances seem completely serious as do the documentary interviews with Dick Clark, Jim Lange and others.  In contrast with last year's Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind, the picture might be seen as a lampoon or at best an antithetical companion.  There are even slight hints at skepticism in the way that infamous urban legends are displayed, including the infamous episode of "The Newlywed Game" in which a young woman misunderstood a question about the strangest place she's ever had sex.  
          Confessions is probably Kaufman's most accessible and commercial script so far.  On the surface the plot is straightforward, entertaining and funny.   Underneath we still see signs of his genius and spot other levels to his humor, though this film is not nearly as hilarious as Being John Malkovich nor as brilliantly crafted as Adaptation and it is thankfully not as absurd as Human Nature.

"I just got a phone call from my agent.  They want me to play another eccentric con man who deceives his loved ones."