The Million Dollar Hotel

What do you get when you team of up three of the most talented Christians in the entertainment industry? Hopefully, something better than this. Unfortunately, we're stuck with it. It's too bad though because I had higher hopes from a film that was directed by Wim Wenders, stars Mel Gibson, and produced by Bono (who also supplied the story and a number of songs from U2). The best part of the film is the opening couple of minutes which begins with a hypnotic helicopter shot around the Los Angeles skyline set to the soothing rhythms of a U2 song, it then moves to the roof of the Million Dollar Hotel where we see a live action sequence that closely resembles Kevin Christensen's Plummet. From there it goes downhill, if you get my meaning. The hotel houses societal rejects: the homeless, mentally retarded, hookers, delusional Indians, Peter Stormare who swears he's the fifth Beatle actually responsible for most of their songs, and apparently Bono in a brief cameo. Mel Gibson is the FBI agent who shows up to find out if the jumber was murdered. He seems dreadfully miscast, and Wenders, who is usually an actor's director, doesn't get the kind of performances out of his cast that he usually manages. In the end, though, I had no idea what I was watching and the layers of meaning (which are almost certainly there) were completely lost on me in such a way that I didn't care to find them.