Silver City (2004)

Directed by John Sayles. Starring Danny Huston, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Richard Dreyfuss, Daryl Hannah, Sal Lopez, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Murphy, Tim Roth, Mary Kay Place, Ralph Waite, James Gammon, Billy Zane, Miguel Ferrer, Luis Saguar, Alma Delfina. [R]

After a corpse is discovered in a lake during the recording of an ad for politician Cooper’s Colorado governor campaign, private investigator Huston is hired to ruffle some feathers with the candidate’s opponent, but ends up digging deeper to discover the truth. Combination of political satire, pro-environmental tract, and murder mystery; none of the endeavors score a bullseye—the satire takes too many familiar potshots, the pro-environment stuff only states the obvious, and the mystery isn’t especially involving, with a resolution that could have been guessed (without needing any clues) the moment that the body surfaced—but they each get at least a “B-” for effort. Typical multi-leveled ensemble piece from writer/director Sayles; most of the performers only have a scene or three, but Cooper and Dreyfuss score in their interpretations of characters clearly inspired by George W. Bush and Karl Rove respectively.

62/100