It was a weird, wooly and wet weekend in Cannes. And it began with what has to be one of the stranger ideas ever put forward for a film: “Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” from Arnaud Desplechin (the wonderful “A Christmas Tale”). Based on a book by French anthropologist/psychotherapist George Deveraux, it’s the more or less true story of a Native American WWII vet, played by Benicio del Toro, who winds up in a military hospital suffering from post-war injuries, real or imagined. When the staff decides the problems are not physical, but don’t have a grasp on the potential mental issues an Indian might face, they call in Deveraux, who is also an expert in Native American culture.
I found the film itself quite strange, the imagery flat, the editing choppy, many of the performances unconvincing, some of the relationships unsatisfying. Even the excellent Mathieu Amalric’s first scenes seem slightly bogus, and his relationship with the married Madeleine (Gina McKee) is
John D. MacDonald’s paperback hero Travis McGee was the protagonist of twenty-one Gold Medal Originals, all with color words in their titles, beginning with "The Deep Blue Good-Bye" in 1964. McGee is a six-foot-plus sun-baked blonde hunk with a heart of gold, a lady-killer with a sentimental streak and a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale. He gets around, but he truly is God's gift. His sexual ministrations can be downright therapeutic for the troubled, abandoned women who seek his services as an unlicensed “salvage consultant,” recovering missing or stolen property in exchange for half its value.
As strange as it may sound, we have no particular problem with the recent announcement that Leonardo DiCaprio will be playing McGee, in an upcoming adaptation of "Deep Blue" that Boston-noir novelist Dennis Lehane ("Gone Baby Gone") is currently writing. Clearly DiCaprio has a potential franchise in his sights.
Leo may be slightly less apt than some of the broad shouldered all-Americans