William Boyd adapts his own novel, Stars and Bars. Boyd has form in the fish out of water comedy as he made a television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop in the mid 1980s.This is probably the last film by Daniel Day-Lewis before he broke out as an Actor with a capital A. He plays an art dealer Henderson who has newly arrived in New York. Henderson is a repressed stiff upper lipped Englishman who wants to break out and let loose in New York. Maybe just like the real DDL who was stuck playing either priggish English toffs (more akin to his upbringing) or yobs at this point in his career.At work he has bizarre relationship with a work colleague (Steven Wright) and hits it off with a kooky artist (Joan Cusack.)Henderson is sent down by his boss to the Gothic south to purchase a loss Renoir that the eccentric Harry Dean Stanton purchased in France at the end of the war. While he is there he encounters various family oddballs including Stanton's son who hates him and find himself in the middle of a rival bidding war for the painting.The film is meant to be a bizarre comedy but it is uneven and strained. The characters are painted in broad brush strokes, some with limited screen time as the film is choppily edited. It has a loose structure which makes little sense again highlighting issues in the editing.Whatever William Boyd's novel was, it did not hit the screen. DDL looks uncomfortable with the slapstick but at the end his Henderson might have found himself in amongst all the shenanigans.

This fish out of water film has Daniel Day Lewis, uptight Englishman, thrown into a dysfunctional family of Southern hillbillies lead by Harry Dean Stanton. Not unlike Stanton's similar misfire movie "Twister", the story is slight, but not as stretched as "Twister". Both movies have offbeat characters on parade. "Stars and Bars" begins with a rather unflattering view of New York City, and then relies on Georgia backwoods stereotypes for both dark and slapstick humor. This film would certainly have to be classified as an acquired taste, and there are plenty of dead spots throughout. Nevertheless, the quirky characters, played by some good character actors, is enough to recommend for admirers of the strange. - MERK

I remember standing in a long line to see this in Manhattan, and thinking that the New York parts were a perfect representation of the city at that moment in time. It's a weird vehicle for Daniel Day-Lewis, apart from his ability to play a perfect British upper class twit - I don't think he's done a comedy since (and certainly not before). The use of Joan Cusack as leading lady and love object is bizarre, too - up until this point she'd been relegated to kooky sidekick/friend of the heroine roles (Broadcast News springs immediately to mind), something she went back to almost immediately after this film. It's strange all around, but also a funny time capsule of sorts. I too wish it was out on DVD.

I was switching around channels one day when I happened to catch the beginning fencing scene of the movie on Showtime. I thought it would be good, as Daniel Day Lewis was in it, and when the beginning credits mentioned other members of the cast, it seemed like a diamond in a rough. Well, I was right about the "rough" part, but not about a diamond. Nothing about this movie resembled a gemstone, and it just goes to show that things aren't always what they seem.The movie is a fish-out-of-water look at a self-centered British art expert who takes a trip to southern America so he could pick up a priceless Renoir which somehow surfaced there. Only problem, is that he'll have to get past a group of reckless hillbillies and crazies in the process. The film was poorly written, and some parts didn't seem scripted at all. Day Lewis' character is so unappealing, that the only thing left to root for in the movie is hopes that this painting will come away undamaged. I tried to channel surf to see if something else was on, just to get away from watching this horrible wreck.I haven't talked to very many people about this film, but those I've had said they have never seen it or heard of it. It figures.