Million Dollar Hotel received a less than glowing review from its star Mel Gibson when he called it "as boring as a dogs ass".
When Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth), the son of media magnate Stanley Goldkiss (Harris Yulin), falls to his death from the roof of the ironically named Million Dollar Hotel, a flophouse occupied by an assortment of losers and weirdos, detective Skinner (Mel Gibson) investigates. Suspects include Eloise (Milla Jovovich), a burnt-out prostitute, Dixie (Peter Stormare), who claims to be the fifth Beatle, Geromino, Jimmy Smits, who is making money out of what he claims are the dead man's paintings, Vivien (Amanda Plumme)r, the dead man's fiancee, and Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies), an unstable young man.
Wim Wenders has made some magnificent films, but Million Dollar Hotel isn't one of them and it's hard not to agree with Mel Gibson's recent review. As a mystery, the film never begins to connect, and the scatty characters are none too interesting. The performances are all over the place, with Jeremy Davies – who we've seen in Spanking The Monkey and Up At The Villa – giving a fidgety, mannered portrayal which is irritating after five minutes and absolutely agonising after two hours. In fact, Gibson himself lends the film what distinction it has in the acting stakes, bringing a touch of irony to his constrained FBI man.
Like all Wenders films, this looks and sounds great – the soundtrack has music by Brian Eno and Bono among others – but these attributes can't make up for the deadly narrative and the woeful central performance.
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