Cookie's Fortune | 
| Director: Robert Altman
Actors: Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O'donnell, Charles S. Dutton
Studio: Polygram USA Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $12.52
You Save: $7.46 (37%)
New (13) Used (14) from $12.52
Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 7492
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Array
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 044004499323
EAN: 0044004499323
ASIN: B00000JRWE
Theatrical Release Date: April 2, 1999
Release Date: November 16, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Dedicated fans of Robert Altman will want to check out this drowsy Southern comedy, which is shot through with the director's feel for location and his musical sense of storytelling. Non-Altman fanatics might want to tread more carefully. Cookie's Fortune begins beautifully, as handyman Willis (Charles S. Dutton) staggers home from a blues club in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. In the wee hours of a warm night, he has an affectionate chat with elderly matriarch Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt (the grand Patricia Neal) and the gentle history of their friendship is sketched in a few brief exchanges. Soon enough, Cookie has checked out of this world to join her dear departed husband, prompting her nieces to make the suicide look like a murder---to protect the dubious family name, of course. They are the local drama diva (Glenn Close), a Scarlett O'Hara in her own mind, and her dreamy sister (Julianne Moore), who ain't quite right in the head. Will Willis be blamed for the murder? Will the inheritance go to the nieces? Will Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell find a place to express their lust? None of these questions is especially burning, and Altman doesn't seem terribly anxious about the answers. Instead, he aims for a particular kind of laid-back quirky southern comedy, unevenly filtered through his screen of sour irony. Like a jazzman blowing improv, some of this works and some of it doesn't. Speaking of music, the film boasts a nifty R&B soundscape devised by former Eurythmics man David Stewart, with a boost from blues belter Ruby Wilson. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
 Great movie, decent price February 4, 2009
B. Callihan (joplin, MO)
GREAT movie its one of those you discover on hbo when you cant sleep @ like 3am. all-star cast, im really surprised no one has heard of it, its a great funny feel-good movie. & emotional & romantic, great story, kinda has a southern feel like fried green tomatos or o brother where art thou
Vintage Altman January 31, 2009
A. Shane (Chicago, IL USA)
Intrigue surrounding the suicide of a crazy old lady in small Southern town. Rober Altman's best film since Short Cuts. Unique and mellow, full of wacky characters and down-home charm. Some wonderful performances too; especially by Patricia Neil and Charles Dutton. I could do without Chris O'Donnel or Liv Tyler, but even they are likable in this fun yet unsettling story, expertly directed and acted.
Cookie's Fortune September 30, 2008
Ray F. Longaker Jr.
Great DVD. Watched it a number of times. All the characters are interesting.
Altman and a fine ensemble cast make a memorable movie. Charles S. Dutton excels February 21, 2008
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Says lawyer Jack Palmer to Emma Duval, explaining the fate of her long gone father, a man she was told years ago had died while doing missionary work in Africa after he'd left his family. "He died alright, about four years later, somewhere down in Alabama in a button factory accident. Seems the hole poker machine broke loose and fell on him. They say he had 273 holes in him before they could get it off."
After all that Emma and her friend Willis Richland have experienced in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, it seems perfectly natural when Emma cries out in exasperation, "Willis, what is wrong with all these people?"
The important point is that they all are part of a movie of great ease and geniality. Cookie's Fortune may be a little sentimental, perhaps, but it is so sweet-natured and natural, and so skillfully presented, that I think the film ranks among Altman's most accomplished works...even if what powers it is an old lady blowing her brains out.
Jewel Mae Orcutt -- Cookie (Patricia Neal) - is aging and increasingly infirm, and she longs for her deceased husband, Buck. When she decides to use one of Buck's pistols to join him, she sets off the avarice of her niece, Camille Dixon (Glenn Close), who pulls along her slow-witted sister, Cora Duval (Julianne Moore). Camille is determined that no hint of a suicide will scandalize the family name, so she makes things look like a burglary gone bad. And, unintentionally, makes it look as if Willis Richland (Charles S. Dutton), a close friend of Cookie's who had worked around the house for her, must have done the deed. Well, there's no way Emma Duval (Liv Tyler) an unconventional young woman who is seriously estranged from her mother, Cora, and her aunt, is going to buy that. In fact, no one, even the local cops, believes that Willis would have burglarized and shot Cookie. For the next hour and a half we're going to take part in Altman's gentle examination of the people in this little cotton-growing town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. We're going to learn how to clean catfish, listen to the blues and, a little off camera, how to make love standing up. We'll encounter Camille's obsession with propriety and look aghast at her firm direction (and rewriting) of Wilde's Salome as a church play for Easter. We're going to see how skilled Lyle Lovett is at gutting a catfish and peeping into Liv Tyler's window at night. We're going to learn a lot about family relationships, even the more informally blessed kind. Most of all, perhaps, we're to learn just how much friendship and family can mean, especially when it's served up with such skill and off-beat humor by Altman and screenwriter Ann Rapp. And as good as all the actors in this ensemble cast are, Charles S. Dutton stands out. He gives a fine performance brimming with likeability and honesty, and without a trace of Hollywood nobility. Willis Richland is a guy who has responsibilities, and that's just fine with him.
The DVD transfer is certainly watchable but could be better. There are no significant extras. The disc is wide-screen on one side, pan-and-scan on the reverse.
 Coulda been much better December 1, 2007
K. Swanson (Austin, TX United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
3.5 stars
I like Altman a lot on occasion (Player, Nashville, a few others), and not so much at times, like here. This could have been tighter, and despite nice turns from Close, Tyler et al, it's too stagey, and too close to its theatrical source to be a great movie.
It got boring enough by halfway that I turned it off and watched the rest later.
Altman is trying to be Faulkneresque but never quite gets there. This is the South via Hollywood, and misses the real grit and nastiness behind the lace curtains.
Nice try, though.
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