The Arrangement

Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is rich, successful and losing his mind. You can tell this because as he's driving to work in his fancy convertible, he deliberately smashes his car--nearly killing him.

This movie was ahead of its time. The scenes presaged Pulp Fiction and The Boondock Saints.

I really liked the idea of exploring the "arranged marriage" thing in Hollywood. It could've actually been a great story line for a nice drama, but as soon as they let the whole "cult" path take over they ruined the show completely.

The acting and cinematography really makes this film, you would think it had a much larger budget than it did. Once it gets going, it's quite enjoyable.

I find the idea of fake/arranged celebrity relationships for publicity really interesting which is why I started watching this. However the Scientology-esque cult thing was just stupid.

There are moments in this much derided film where it appears to tire of its own pretensions and lighten up: when the hero's evil, greedy side talks to him, when things are sped up like a deraged silent film, when he imagines a 'Batman-style punch up, when we see the sardonic psychoanalyst sigh, or the usual family bickerings over money, or Douglas do a chicken-walk. But the hero's soul searching is so relentless it comes across as pompous and tiring, however truthfully it might be felt by him and the director, I got tired of it and almost wished he went back to being a self-satisfied ad man with a mothering wife who needs him to work in advertising and keep her lifestyle.

'The Arrangement' was one of the very few Elia Kazan films to be near-uniformally panned critically when first released at the time. Even the slightly more complimentary reviews were generally mixed at best.

Digital Playground delivers a fine, Old School type of drama in this unassuming DVD release, notable for Gina Valentina's convincing performance in the leading role.She portrays an escort (= prostitute) hired by Ralph Fiennes-lookalike Stirling Cooper, to pretend to be his daughter at an important business meeting with client Eric John (uncredited).

Straight up, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was all of the worst parts of Hollywood got together in an alleyway and decided to beat the crap out of some good actors.