Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Year: 2002
Director: George Clooney
Country: US
Language: English

Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris (born June 3, 1929) is an American game show creator, producer, and host. He is best known for creating The Gong Show, a televised NBC broadcast which showcased the worst of local talent in attempt at being humorous. He has also created the memorable Newlywed Game and Dating Game. Some consider the man an innovative genius, while others think he lowered the quality of television. Regardless, the man has made an enormous impact on the industry. 

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative...or so the host himself says.

Spoofed in an article titled "The Movie Marketed as Six Different Genres" by satirical website The Onion,  Confessions of a Dangerous Mind attempts to be the jack of all films, but isn't great enough to satisfy anyone. Granted the picture is intriguing as it carves a competent story out of an incompetent illusion (Barris was on a lot of drugs at the time & the CIA consistently claims that he never worked for them). It has a great sense of humor, but George Clooney doesn't know how to properly mend it with Charlie Kaufman's (at times) dark script. It's difficult to tell if a scene is supposed to be funny, or if it's meant to be dramatic. 

The scriptwriter himself felt dissatisfied with the way Director George Clooney treated his script. Creative differences led to unfortunate changes. This is not to knock Clooney as a director; he has a unique style that blends techniques of older filmmakers (Mike Nichols) and contemporary (Steven Soderbergh) His fashion is visceral, vital and churning with off-the-wall ideas.Even if some ideas don't work, Confessions is interesting enough to keep you hooked to the screen.

If executed well, Barris' double life as a CIA agent could have translated well as a metaphor for his insane drug habits. Some say the film  has an embracing intimacy; while we see the zany game show host at his most vulnerable, I'd say we are still left in the dark about some issues. Barris' biography hides behind made-up CIA escapades to avoid some real truths. Sadly Clooney takes his source material far too literally.