Where Welles' script is suffused with the melancholy sense of loss of an old man looking back on past mistakes, the film is brightened with the hope and possibilities of a younger man looking ahead to unlimited possibility. Hurt gives his best performance in decades as a man whose confidence is cracked by guilt. Less convincing is French beauty Irčne Jacob as an international reporter while Miranda Richardson, though excellent, gets lost as the story sidesteps her sad alcoholic character. We'll never know what Welles could have done with his story, but Hickenlooper delivers a handsome, compelling drama. --Sean Axmaker
Okay, let's look at the evidence. Script by Orson Welles: somewhat amazing since he died in 1985. His last work. That alone may make this worth watching. William Hurt plays a southern pol, Blake Pellarin, running for governor of Missouri. Miranda Richardson plays his rich, alcoholic wife, and she is very good. Nigel Hawthorne is Kim Mennaker, Blake's one time mentor, a shadowy, behind the scenes political figure, a cynical character who is writing a 27,000-page memoir, which no doubt includes much about his love for the Pellarin boys. Irene Jacob plays Cela Brandini, a TV reporter fascinated with Blake. The one-time protege of French-Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski is not shown to advantage here. I'm not sure why, but there is little subtlety in the way she plays the part. To really appreciate what she can do, see her in La Double vie de Veronique (1991) or Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994), both directed by Kieslowski. She is beautiful and very winning.
William Hurt, contrary to some opinion, was excellent. His characteristic laid-back, almost languid style works strangely well for a southern pol. He is certainly different, but believable, although I don't think his style would have worked had his character been running for president, as in Welles's original script. (Incidentally, they really wanted Louisiana, not Missouri, for the locale.) Hurt's performance reminds me in some ways of his work in the outstanding but now somewhat neglected, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he won an academy award.
The Big Brass Ring never had a theatrical release, and it is not hard to see why. The print is too dark and the story too murky and hard to follow. It appears that the brothers changed identities when young and never bothered to change back. Apparently Blake's brother and not Blake was the subject of the homosexual photo, but I'm not sure. To make this movie work for a mass audience, the true status of the boys then, and during the time of the action, must be made clear.
