Three Businessmen

Here's a film that might at first seem frustrating at times, but gradually grows in fascination & sheer watchability. The plot, such as it is? An American art dealer in Liverpool meets an English art dealer in the strangely empty restaurant of their hotel. Unable to find anyone else in the kitchen, they set out to find dinner ... an overnight journey that somehow leads them through several countries around the world, as they converse about the banal, the bizarre, and those fleeting insights that pass like birds before our eyes, hardly noticed.Well, as the opening titles proclaim this "An Exterminating Angel Film" a la Bunuel, it's clear that we're in Surreal territory. At first I was trying too hard to make sense of it, to fit everything together; but once I simply relaxed & went with it, simply enjoying the journey itself, it made a lot more sense on a visceral level, just as long as I didn't try to put it into words. In short, it has the quality of a vivid dream, one that's crystal-clear while inside of it, but is hard to grasp once you wake. It does remind me of "My Dinner With Andre" in some ways, but it's more like one of Andre's otherworldly experiences than that film's conversation itself.While I'm not sure that every part of the film works or coheres as much as I'd like -- and that may well be my problem, not the film's -- I'll definitely be watching it again soon. It's that rare thing, a film that takes you some place new & different, even if it means that it's making itself up as it goes ... or seems to, anyway. That quality might not appeal to every viewer, to be sure! But if you're in the mood to try something experimental & weirdly fun, you could do a lot worse -- highly recommended!

I will not go into the plot here, that is covered in many other reviews. But I will say that as someone else said, this film is strangely fascinating and the ending is one of the most interesting I have ever seen. Its probably not for everybody, if you are looking for action look elsewhere. But if you like your cinema "fringe" but not too "fringe" then this may just be for you. Highly recommended.

Boring!

Bennie has just arrived in Liverpool, obviously on business, but the details are sketchy. He arrives at this gorgeous hotel that has about as many quirks as any place I've seen on film. The doors have no room numbers, the hallways are a maze, and everything is completely dark. It is agonizing watching this man drag all of his luggage through such emptiness, we can only sympathize with him. But it is a minor tragedy, afterall, and soon Bennie finds his room. That's how this film is structured, a series of miniscule and minor tragedies painting an oddly dark landscape. Having set up shop with his computer, printer, and coffee pot (in a jacuzzi suite that has only one electrical outlet), Bennie soon finds himself bored. He goes through books, paces around, blesses the room with sage smoke... Yes, this is an odd little movie. But we see that he is waiting for something, he keeps glancing at his cell phone... Nobody calls, so Bennie decides the best bet is to find something to eat.The hotel's restaurant is this wide open ballroom, as beautiful as it is obnoxious with an abundance of chandeliers and very bright lighting... It is empty, sans one other person. Bennie is seated next to another businessmen patiently awaiting his meal. The time lingers and soon enough, Bennie makes just enough of an annoyance to get the other patron's attention. His name is Frank, and soon we find they are both in the "art business". I should point out at some point, Bennie is the obnoxious American type... Much to the chagrin of a very polite English Frank. But a small relationship is established, and after a very long period of time the food still has not arrived... So, noticing that this restaurant doesn't even have the smell of food, Bennie takes the initiative to visit the kitchen... Which is completely abandoned... Cue slow panning shot and one of the few pieces of musical score to reveal on of the most depressing moments of the film.OK, so these guys aren't going to eat in the hotel it seems, so they decide to hit the streets to find something to eat. They wander the streets for twenty four hours with some idle, sometimes confrontational, chit chat... Completely oblivious to the fact that the setting is changing around them... The fact that they don't see Hong Kong harbor outside their Liverpool ferry pretty much sums what this film is about...But... There's more!Brought to you by the man responsible for Sid & Nancy, Repo Man, and Straight to Hell, Alex Cox weaves perhaps one of the most subtle and insidious films I have ever seen. I don't know why I've put off seeing Cox's later work, perhaps because I didn't believe he could maintain the same level of insanity that he had during the eighties... That seems to be the case for most genre directors, so I didn't keep my hopes up. This is about as clever, if not more so, than his early work. Just as before, I am always astounded at Cox's ability to weave so many non sequiturs into a film and give them as great of gravity as the key points to the film. It is not as obvious as say Repo Man, considering that the pace is excruciatingly slow, but so much the better for us.The description on the DVD mentions Beckett, and that about sums up this film. This is probably the closest I have seen to a cinematic equivalent to Waiting for Godot. The description above pretty much sums up the progress of the entire movie, and in the wrong (perhaps right) mindset, you will be as completely oblivious as Bennie and Frank. Unlike Godot, however, Three Businessmen does have a punchline and the last act is hard to ignore the drastic changes occurring around our two businessmen. The title is Three Businessmen, but the third doesn't make his way in until this cosmic joke is reaching its climax so I will leave it at that. But I will say that this film is one giant joke, the kind that if told would take ten minutes to tell before the one-liner conclusion. This is a joke that involves Bennie, Frank and their soon would-be counterpart, and when the punchline comes it doesn't seem to make much of a difference between the three.On the FAQ at Alex Cox's site regarding Three Businessmen, when asked what the film is about: "Certainly is. It's the story of Bennie and Frank, two independent businessmen, who meet by chance in the restaurant of the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. Unable to find food therein, they set out in search of dinner." That's enough for me, but when writer Tod Davies is asked the same question: "It's not what it's about. It's just what happens. There is some confusion that these two things are the same, in the movies. But they are not."Fair enough.

The film begins by showing us the grand old buildings of Liverpool, England. An old man walks in front of one of them and in the next shot enters Lime Street Station. You wouldn't think that this is relevant, but it is. In Alex Cox's Three Businessmen most things that are on view in the frame are relevant. Cox describes the film as "Buñuelian". You could say that it is something along the lines of one of the maestro's films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, because the two main protagonists have the same problem - they can't seem to find a meal and a place to eat. The two main protagonists in question are art dealers Bennie Reyes (Miguel Sandoval) and Frank King (Alex Cox). The two men meet while waiting for food in a hotel's dining room. The food doesn't arrive, and the eerie hotel is mysteriously empty, so the chaps go in search of a meal around Liverpool, which proves to be a difficult task as their search is thwarted constantly. Their crusade takes them into foreign locations, even though the men think they are in Liverpool throughout. It's a very enjoyable and inventive surreal film.The DVD picture is in widescreen and fine. The sound is in Dolby 2.0 and alright. The main menu is a static shot of the Three Businessmen and has the Debbie Harry song, "Ghost Riders in the Sky playing". There are eight chapters. The extras are just a commentary by director Alex Cox and writer/producer Tod Davies. It is an excellent commentary featuring amusing commercial interludes by Alex Cox. Tod Davies is good, too, explaining all the background on the making of the film. Funny, insightful and interesting.

while i appreciate the film for what it was and its surrealist atmosphere its not amazing by any measure the characters did feel genuine and the whole film is basically a metaphor about the three wise men or something