The Million Dollar Hotel

Wim Wender's THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL is a well-filmed movie set in a majestic, dilapidated hotel on the outskirts of Hollywood. The opener shows Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies), the eccentric, slightly retarded, skateboard-riding narrator, wandering in slow motion at daybreak on the roof of the hotel, as a hypnotic U2 song completes the moment. The film consists of many of these near-perfect fantasy capsules, strung together by a vague plot--that Agent Skinner (Mel Gibson), a clownish detective, is investigating the supposed murder of an artist named Izzy who was living at the hotel, and who is the son of a millionaire. What Skinner learns immediately is that most of the hotel's residents are, like Tom Tom, mentally disabled and basically harmless. Geronimo (Jimmy Smits) is one of the few hotel occupants who seems capable of committing such a crime, but even he is more entertaining than threatening. Through Skinner's observation of his subjects, viewers witness some delectably sweet events, such as the magical scene in which Tom Tom meets his true love, Eloise (Milla Jovovich) in the stairwell of the hotel. Both the actors and the sets of THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL facilitate stunning photography that looks as if it were ripped from the pages of Vogue. The script, based on an idea by Bono, and the score by U2, complete this fashionable picture.