DVD Release
The Minus Man (1999)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Artisan Home Entertainment / 2000
Directed by: Hampton Fancher
Written by: Hampton Fancher, Lew McCreary (novel)
Cast: Owen Wilson, Brian Cox, Sheryl Crow, Dwight Yoakam, Janeane Garofalo
Review by Vaughn Drake
Owen Wilson plays Vann Siegert, a serial killer who poisons those who he deems won’t be missed. He aimlessly travels around the country until he lands in a small town whose sole highlight is the local high school football team. He rents a room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Durwin (Brian Cox and Mercedes Ruehl) and strikes up a friendship with them. Without realizing it, he starts to put down roots and gets a job at the local post office. There, he meets Ferrin (Janeane Garofalo), a lonely woman who is attracted to Vann, yet he can’t bring himself to reciprocate the feelings. While in the small town Vann continues killing, breaking all his personal rules of conduct and at the same time, a madman is terrorizing the locals with a senseless killing spree.
Plagued by thoughts of capture and arrest, he forces himself to always wear a virtual mask so others can’t see his true self (he claims in one scene he only has seven expressions). If this sounds vaguely like American Psycho, you’d be correct. The major difference between the two: Patrick Bateman of American Psycho had all the money in the world and he tried to be as sadistic as possible. Vann cares about his victims. He befriends them and tries to make their passing as painless as possible. Between the two, Patrick is the cartoon, and Vann, our reality—he kills, not for the sick love of it, but perhaps because he feels he has too, but takes no enjoyment from the kill.
Vanns motives are never discussed, and very little from his background is ever revealed—and what little we’re told, may be a complete fabrication. He is merely a lone man, moving from town to town, killing those he deems won’t be missed.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the original theatrical trailer for the movie; possibly the most original trailer I’ve ever seen. I won’t give too much of it away, but I will say: it doesn’t contain a single frame from the movie.
While not as thought provoking as the trailer leads you to believe, it still offers a different take on a serial killer than we’re normally shown. Although I enjoyed watching Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo and Brian Cox do their thing, I can’t help but think that this could have been much better.
