Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) is a tired businessman who visits a Fortune Teller after a tiresome day. She tells him that he's not where he belongs. He leaves his wife. He goes into the night having various adventures in a strip club, a brothel, robbed by three card Monte, pawning his ring for a knife, and stabbing a pimp. He finds waitress Glenna (Julia Stiles) willing to listen. They go back to her apartment and have sex but he ends up killing her. Edmond is arrested and put in prison where his black cellmate rapes him.This David Mamet play gets turned into a movie. The material has a surreal feel. I wonder if the movie should accept that surrealism and expand on it visually. William H. Macy does an intriguing turn. It's not completely convincing. Mamet's writing and Edmond's constant philosophizing leave me intrigued but also wondering what the point is. Maybe the point is not to listen to fortune tellers.

Trash is trash, even if it's trash gussied up with Mamet speak. This is a hateful film, about a hateful, racist twerp and being such a poorly done film, they make it very easy for the viewer to hate the film back. No subject is too taboo and I can appreciate films that venture into the darkest recesses, but this is where craft and care in front of and behind the camera are needed most. Here, we get sloppy exploitation masquerading as some sort of social commentary. Macy barely registers as human and more a diseased robot out to cause havoc. But there's not much he can do with such simplistic and rotten material and Mamet is the one who should have known better, since he's the one adapting his one act play to the screen. He's usually a button pusher, but one with enough wit and intelligence to back up some of his most misanthropic work -- here, this is just shlock that wallows in the sewer. The biggest reaction this film can muster is disappointment in the two talented people behind this film.

David Mamet's play "Edmond" becomes on the hands of the "Re-Animator" director Stuart Gordon a strange portrayal about human degradation and the loss of everything, a man who lost everything and most important, his inner self into sex, crimes, lies and more; a man who went spiraling out of control believing this was the path he should be traveling by. So, if you're in a good mood don't go watch this film.Remember when Tom Cruise was walking on the NY streets looking for something after his wife tell him something disturbing to him in "Eyes Wide Shut"? Well, William H. Macy playing Edmond does almost the same except this time his disenchanted character leaves his wife and his house, he doesn't love her anymore and he wants something new, something exciting in his life. Edmond's "guides" in this rotten and sickening world of "pleasures" and deceive are a fortune teller (Frances Bay); a man he met at a bar (Joe Mantegna); a young waitress (Julia Stiles); a stripper (Ling Bai); a prostitute (Mena Suvari); a prisoner (Bookem Woodbine); and plenty of others and the number 115 (?). And he keeps walking the streets looking for something, for someone who can listen to him, someone who can have sex with him, but he gets robbed, commits murders AND doesn't realize he had everything he needed and now he's going for his ruin, his moral and physical destruction; to him forces or fate control everything in everyone's lives, it's not in our hands to built our path through life, it's bigger than us. The film isn't fair with us by showing Edmond became the way he did; it isn't fair also because he barely realizes that his life was full of good things, it simply throws to us that he hated how the world was like, hated his wife and all. The guy snapped! Thankfully, the movie makes sense without showing the difference of what Edmond was and what Edmond becomes but we can notice his failure during his doomed journey. The story is quite good but there are some weak points to be found. The most serious moment of the film became the most laughable when Edmond killed someone, his lowest point, and I laughed a lot, don't know why exactly. Perhaps the plot was going way absurd or the way the scene was edited, something happened to me during this part; the plot twists to some bizarre things that to some might look ridiculous; another thing that bothers concerns about Edmond's racist attacks, it goes way too much, less could work effectively, and is something that shouldn't be here if the movie seems to demand from us that we like this guy (and we do, no matter what because William H. Macy is always likable in any film he makes). But, my guess is that Mamet's text works best when he also directs (notable exception is "Glengarry Glen Ross" directed by James Foley). Positive aspects of this film besides the story: Macy is amazing (as always) in the title role. He brings desperation and real drama to this role, we feel pity of him at points until we realize this guy went too far. Supporting cast goes well and I wish we could have more of Joe Mantegna, the most friendly character to Edmond during his entrance to hell. Final questions: Edmond really had to pass through all of this? How much do we control in life? To be complete and to be happy is easy? If you like difficult questions that look simple but most of the time are not answered, and if you enjoy characters who go downhill through life time and time again, go watch "Edmond" right away. 9/10

Stuart Gordon is known for his Lovecraft adaptions and the terribly violent "King of the Ants". David Mamet is without doubt a great writer, and this movie shows that he is very brilliant. The tagline by a reviewer: "Makes Falling Down look like Bambi" is pretty funny, and also quite true. Unlike Falling Down this movie actually portrays a character, Edmond, which could exist in real life, and we understand what motivates him. It 's, like "King of the Ants", a very disturbing and violent movie. I had to, from time to time, fast forward because I found it too disturbing what might happen next, and I had to see what happened next. There's also some great philosophical dialogue and we can really understand that this character is searching for the meaning of life. This movie is certainly worth seeing and fits in well with movies like "Taxi Driver", "Bad Leutenant", "Death Wish" and "Falling Down" (also a good movie in its own right, didn't mean to downgrade it). Moreover, it is quite a good movie about urban alienation.