Rating: 
Summary: Just about the most fun of any Altman film.
Review: Frankly, I'm a sucker for the "eccentrics-in-a-small-town" school of filmmaking, and "Cookie's Fortune" is one of the very best of that genre. Some reviewers have taken this film as a slur on Southerners, but I don't take the characters in "Cookie's Fortune" as real Southerners. They're characters of classic farce, with the central character a bossy, self-dramatizing fussbudget who tries to control everyone's life and ends up paying the piper for her presumption. Not for nothing is she named Camille! Camille, played by Glenn Close, starts the whole plot going by trying to cover up her aunt's suicide, thinking it shameful that anyone in HER family would dare to show such weakness. Her actions in turn uncover a whole raft of small-town secrets, including one of her own. Close is hilariously over the top as Camille, and the rest of the huge, illustrious cast matches her. It's lovely to see Patricia Neal, who plays the Cookie of the title, again after so many years, and Charles S. Dutton is a total delight as Willis, Cookie's caretaker/best friend. Julianne Moore, Ned Beatty, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Courtney B. Vance, Lyle Lovett, Donald Moffat--all and many others add something charming and distinctive to this genial, refreshing film. This isn't Robert Altman's deepest film, but it's the most fun of any Altman film between "M*A*S*H" and "Gosford Park." Anyone who liked "Local Hero," "Waking Ned Devine" or "Northern Exposure" will like "Cookie's Fortune."
Rating:
Summary: Altman, Great Ensemble, and Catfish Enchiladas...
Review: This review refers to the DVD edition of "Cookie's Fortune"....Glenn Close literally gets caught with her hand in the cookie jar in one of Robert Altman's all star,delightful comedies. It also stars Julianne Moore,Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Charles S.Dutton, Ned Beatty,Courtney Vance, Lyle Lovett,Donald Moffat and screen legend Patricia Neal as "Cookie"....what an ensemble! These great stars work beautifully together, and their comic timing is brillant. The story starts out at a leisurely pace that gives you the perfect feel of Holly Springs, Mississippi, a small, slow-paced,antebellum town where everyone knows everyone. Then BANG..the little town is shaken up by the death of it's matriach, Jewel May "Cookie" Orcutt, and everyone gets involved with the murder investagation....but wait...was this actually a murder? Someone is sure trying to make it look that way! And uh-oh... the wrong man has been arrested and the police chief is out to prove his innocence. How does he know he's innocent...well..he fishes with him, of course! Altman's superb direction,the wonderful twists and turns, the great camera work, the music, the terrific story and of course the fabulous ensemble make for a very entertaining 2 hours. You'll want to watch it over and over. The DVD is a beautiful transfer. You have the choice of widescreen or full screen. The picture is clear and bright with great color. The sound offers the choice of Dolby 5.1 or stereo surround and is excellent. There are closed captions(English) and subtitles in Spanish and French. It includes cast bios and filmographies, and the theatrical trailer. You have the option of listening to the director commentary during the film as well. So spend some time behind bars in Holly Springs, with Charles Dutton and Liv Tyler. Don't worry it's fun behind these bars..they never lock the bars, and you get to play scrabble and have some great meals! We are serving our famous "catfish enchildas" today! Have fun with this one.....Laurie
Rating:
Summary: TOOKIT!
Review: This just has to be said:
Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune may very well one of the greatest films ever made. I kid you not! Well. At least one of the finest films of the past decade.
When you watch this film you are viewing the work of a director that is so sure of himself and his abilities and the story that he just sort of let's it happen. It's truly amazing when it hits you. This film plays effortlessly. Like a Mozart composition.
Unpretentious. Deliberate and confident. No single performance stands out or hogs the spotlight. And Altman's cast is top-notch from critic darlings like Glenn Close to fantastic character actors like THE ROCK!
You might not catch it the first time you see it. But. Watch it a few times. Then it'll hit ya!
Rating: 
Summary: Altman's Ensemble Is Top Notch
Review: Robert Altman has done it again. With a terrific ensemble of wonderful actors headed by Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Charles S. Dutton, Liv Tyler and Patricia Neal he has crafted "Cookie's Fortune," a dark comedy brimming with laughs and plenty of heart as written by the talented Anne Rapp. When local matriarch "Cookie" (Neal) commits suicide, her image-obsessed niece, Camille (Close), rearranges the scene of the "crime" to resemble a robbery/murder so that the stigma of suicide won't mar the family's good name. Camille talks her kind but simple sister, Cora (Moore, in a beautiful performance), into going along with the ruse despite the fact that Cookie's dear friend and handyman (Dutton) is charged with a crime he didn't commit. Ned Beatty, Courtney B. Vance, Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell round out the ensemble. For those of you looking for a quirky, well made film, check this one out, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Altman, Great Ensemble, and Catfish Enchiladas...
Review: This review refers to the DVD edition of "Cookie's Fortune".... Glenn Close literally gets caught with her hand in the cookie jar in one of Robert Altman's all star,delightful comedies. It also stars Julianne Moore,Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Charles S.Dutton, Ned Beatty,Courtney Vance, Lyle Lovett,Donald Moffat and screen legend Patricia Neal as "Cookie"....what an ensemble! These great stars work beautifully together, and their comic timing is brillant. The story starts out at a leisurely pace that gives you the perfect feel of Holly Springs, Mississippi, a small, slow-paced,antebellum town where everyone knows everyone. Then BANG..the little town is shaken up by the death of it's matriach, Jewel May "Cookie" Orcutt, and everyone gets involved with the murder investagation....but wait...was this actually a murder? Someone is sure trying to make it look that way! And uh-oh... the wrong man has been arrested and the police chief is out to prove his innocence. How does he know he's innocent...well..he fishes with him, of course! Altman's superb direction,the wonderful twists and turns, the great camera work, the music, the terrific story and of course the fabulous ensemble make for a very entertaining 2 hours. You'll want to watch it over and over. The DVD is a beautiful transfer. You have the choice of widescreen or full screen. The picture is clear and bright with great color. The sound offers the choice of Dolby 5.1 or stereo surround and is excellent. There are closed captions(English) and subtitles in Spanish and French. It includes cast bios and filmographies, and the theatrical trailer. You have the option of listening to the director commentary during the film as well. So spend some time behind bars in Holly Springs, with Charles Dutton and Liv Tyler. Don't worry it's fun behind these bars..they never lock the bars, and you get to play scrabble and have some great meals! We are serving our famous "catfish enchildas" today! Have fun with this one.....Laurie
Rating:
Summary: One of Altman's best!
Review: If you like loud movies' with lots of special effect that merely mask the fact that they have no plot and the actors can't act, you'll want to take a pass on "Cookie's Fortune." If, however, you preference is for movies with great writing and acting, then you'll want to see "Cookie's Fortune" to be sure. Yes, it is paced at a leisurely rate, but the plot and characters are so endearing and so quirky that once things do get going this is a decided plus. Glenn Close, Charles S. Dutton, Patricia Neal, Julianne Moore and Ned Beatty are all top notch (no surprise really) in their roles in this superb ensemble piece, and while Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell are perhaps miscast in their roles (and a subplot involving their affair is not necessary) these are only minor quibbles. Great bluesy score by Dave Stewart adds to the mix. All and all one of the best films of 1999. Too bad it played in theaters to early in the year for the Oscars to remember it.
Rating:
Summary: Made for the Stage
Review: I enjoyed this movie, but thought it'd make a better play. >you need to go rent and watch this movie (cookie's fortune). the rest of this is spoilers .. dont read til you've seen it: the first act ends right after they find the body and willis walks in. the second act (a little longer, without editing) starts with willis sitting on his bed holding the bag of groceries and the cop walks in. dr. cummings could play the one attorney in town. there are only nine or so parts (cookie, willis, emma, cora, cora's sister, jason, the attorney, the investigator, and the sheriff). there are several things that make it a great play, including the dialogue, play-within-a-play, and some key devices. (the shattering glass bowl is a great scene ender, esp if done off-stage). and the action takes place in only a few areas: the first act is mostly the bedroom/stairway/kitchen/yard, with a bit at the church and a bit at the bar. the second act is mostly in the jail, with a bit at the bar and a bit at the house. you could edit out several parts, and possibly several scenes. it's funny, but a bit dark, and a bit of drama and a bit of sadness. ... yadda yadda... good stuff!
Rating:
Summary: Great actors having a lot of fun.
Review: One of Robert Altman's attractions is his ability to attract groups of fine actors to play in his films. In that regard, Cookie's Fortune is one of his best, with Glenn Close, Charles S. Dutton, Julianne Moore, Patricia Neal, Chris O'Donnell and Liv Tyler. It's one of those rare films where all of the actors perform well, with none upstaging the others. The plot, ideal for a sleepy southern town, plays out smoothly with lots of low-key laughs along the way. After it's over, you'll want to watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: "Fortune"ate choice at the Video Store
Review: I stumbled onto this one (drawn in by the favorable Roger Ebert comment on the cover and its list of actors). I loved the heart and soul of this movie. Its slow moving but well performed script had me looking forward to more information about each of the characters as they were introduced. What character development! What characters! This is a gem. It's going on my Christmas list, then my Birthday list and if I haven't got it free by February, I'll fork out the doe myself. Ned Beatty, as always, performs flawless "small town sheriff" while most lovable goes to Charles Dutton. Liv Tyler "unelfed" is such a darling. Glenn Close (not one of my favorite actresses) is a loose nut gone a bit too far from the jar but remains innocently (by reason of insanity) guilty to the end. No high tech enhancements, evil plots, impossibly beautiful/moral/gifted heroes/heroines nor ridiculous action scenes. This story is a gift to those of us who would just like to view decent folk muddling their way through life with humor, intelligence and generous acceptance of each others foibles. No perfection required, no prejudices, no morality debates, let's just live life as best we can without hurting others if at all possible. Thank you, Anne Rapp (Writer) and Robert Altman (Producer/Director).
Rating: 
Summary: Another Altman Clinker
Review: When there used to be no readily graspable point to Altman films (at least points of the sort other mainstream movies had) it was a good thing. You could bet he was prying at the inner mind of inaccessible characters, mordantly deconstructing genres, and mining the quirky and offbeat in a way that would make people like John Waters seem like rank amateurs many years later. His universe was a half degree off center, and this is why we loved him. Maybe the times have taken all that away from him. Maybe his easy iconoclasm and eccentric POV have been superceded by a culture where everyone works overtime at seeming individual and irreverant (whatever those mean anymore). Whatever has happened, it is symptomatic of a lot of recent Altman. When there seems to be no point, there is really no point. And nothing worth watching. In Cookie's Fortune, accents are bad, as in too intrusive AND unconvincing. That has come to be expected any time Hollywood mints another flick about the South, or New England. (It would appear there isn't an accent coach in Hollywood who has found an apt pupil in 50 years.) In some films this wouldn't matter, but Altman has never been about artificiality, and this reeks of and screams out arch fakery in a very anti-Altman way. It is hard not to take it as another sign of trouble. Lots of directors go through biding-time periods or periods of what Hitchcock called recharging their battery. (If you doubt Hitchcock, ask yourself: Can it be that the same director made Vertigo or Psycho only about 10 years after barely watchable films like Under Capricorn and Stage Fright?) I find it sad that Altman reaches that point just now. When the audience comes back to him, and he is in demand, he is too fatigued to give them anything but commercial jobs, literary adaptations, etc. A major disappointment from this director.
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