Mad, bad and dangerous to know

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Director: George Clooney

Cast: George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer

Cert: 18.

Clooney continues his emergence as a man of many parts with this good directorial debut.

It is a film based on the life of a real, slightly deranged, character, Stateside inventor of such TV shows as The Dating Game and The Gong Show, Chuck Barris. This gentleman subsequently wrote a bio in which he claimed to have long been a CIA hitman. He then went on a rambling run around the States; clearly in a fog of madness!

The excellent Rockwell plays Barris to perfection and the rest of a sterling cast, under Clooney's sure-handed direction, try to make sense of a central character who was clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic. Perhaps Barris was just too much of a deeply flawed character to allow the makers of this bio to get a decent grip on his personality.

The film, though, looks good and Clooney should be encouraged to step behind the cameras more often, he has the makings of a fine and innovative director.

Star Rating: 4/5.