Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3526 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Boasting a terrific cast, led by the always-watchable Woody Harrelson, Paul Schrader's The Walker is an entertaining drama that was overlooked by many in cinemas, but is worth taking for a spin on DVD.

The Walker sees Harrelson starring as Carter Page III, a man whose job it is to escort the wives of powerful men to the events that their husbands, for whatever reason, cannot take them to. And it's all looking like a good life, until a murder derails everything. Page agrees to help cover things up, which naturally spins out a web of events that tests both his conflicting loyalty, and his honesty.

It's the kind of set-up that in lesser hands could have amounted to very little, but The Walker has Paul Schrader behind the camera. It's effectively the third in a loose trilogy of films he's made (the companion pieces being Light Sleeper and American Gigolo), and his steady hand delivers a intriguing and very watchable drama.

Schrader is, of course, able to attract quite a cast, and the call sheet serves The Walker well. Harrelson is in fine form in the best role he's had in some time, while the supporting cast of Lauren Bacall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily Tomlin and Willem Dafoe add a stature and magnitude to the film.

The result is a quality drama, very well acted and tightly put together. Thus, even if you missed The Walker during its brief theatrical run, there's little reason not to pick it up now. Good stuff. --Jon Foster

DVD Description
Carter Page III is a society "walker" whose job entails squiring the wives of the rich and powerful to events their husbands could not accompany them to. When one of his friends, Lynn, wife of a liberal senator finds her lover murdered, he agrees to say he found the body to save her and her husband political embarrassment. Soon Carter is caught in a web of Washington intrigue and mixed motives and the people he considered friends are deserting him one by one.

Synopsis
This third entry in Paul Schrader's 'lonely man' trilogy (after AMERICAN GIGOLO and LIGHT SLEEPER) centres on a man (Woody Harrelson) who escorts the wives and widows of American politicians and gets over his head when he offers to cover for a friend. The world of Washington, DC's elite is shattered by a scandal, and Harrelson's character finds himself in the middle of the mess.

Customer Reviews

nostalgia is a paul schrader film
Ludicrously 'old fashioned' in the sense that Mr Schrader is stuck in 1987 having an inappropriate cocktail with already outmoded lounge monster, Mr Ferry.
The whole thing feels like Bladerunner. There's even a scene where a character is illuminated through a venetian blind !
Lot's of sub-Wildean/Capote witticism. Lots of archness. Lots of Bowie-like 'style'. No substantial plot whatsoever. Lots of being beaten around the head with 'Mr Bush is intolerable and American Society is beastly and going to the dogs' (Check out the Robert Hughes reference).
So.. as subtle as big shoulders and, all in all .. a good film for any fop over forty.

"Let me give you a piece of Washington wisdom," Natalie Van Miter says. "Never stand between a friend and a firing squad."
"In the end, all you have is your breeding. It's all that separates `them' from `us,'" says Natalie Van Miter, rich, aging doyen of Washington high society.

"My great-grandfather got rich off slavery," says languid, gay, agreeable Carter Page III, escort for powerful women in the nation's capital, who is beginning to have second thoughts, thanks to a murder, about his life. "When the Yankees took that away, my grandfather made his money raisin' tobacco. I don't have any breeding."

"If your great-grandfather were alive today, he'd fit right in," says Natalie, with an affectionate squeeze to Carter's arm.

Car (Woody Harrelson), as his lady friends call him, always meets them for weekly Canasta games at an exclusive Washington club. They dish the gossip about everything and everyone, except about themselves. There's Natalie (Lauren Bacall), acerbic with a smile; Abigail Delorean (Lily Tomlin) the vice president's wife and no fool; and Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott Thomas), unhappy wife of Senator Larry Lockner, the Senate's minority leader. They all adore Car, who dishes with the best of them. And Car adores them. He's a "walker," an unthreatening, well-bred man who takes wealthy women from place to place when their powerful husbands don't want to go.

Car even escorts Lynn Lockner to her secret weekly assignations with a lover, waiting in the car for her to return an hour or so later. This time, however, Lynn returns in minutes. She found her lover, a financial wheeler-dealer who had been scheduled to testify before a Senate committee, sprawled dead in the man's living room, stab wounds in his chest and, well, lower down. Car decides to protect Lynn, one of his favorite ladies, so he drives her home, returns and then calls the police and says he just found the body.

Carter Page is a man who has lived his life carefully. "I'm not naïve," he says at one point, "I'm superficial." He's never been willing to fully commit to his boyfriend. He uses soft-spoken wit to deflect anything too serious. "How come you're always so polite?" asks Lynn at one point. "It was my mother's answer to chaos and now it's mine," he tells her. He loves being a friend to his powerful, witty, sharply amusing ladies. Before long he's going to find himself the chief suspect in the murder, a target of an obnoxious prosecutor who is delighted to nail Carter with the crime. His boyfriend gets beaten up. Ruthless, political maneuvering in high places leaves him exposed to the elements. In some ways most hurtful, he realizes that his ladies, while still gracious, aren't inclined to play Canasta anymore with him. Even Lynn now is nowhere to be found. "Let me give you a piece of Washington wisdom," Natalie Van Miter tells him. "Never stand between a friend and a firing squad."

The Walker, for the first two-thirds, is a brittle, amusing satire of Washington society and the self-interest that makes it work. The last third, for me, slows down a bit because Paul Schrader, the director, begins to take his view of Washington politics too seriously. There are cracks about the current administration that are a bit old hat. The murderous intent to win at the political game turns from wit to something a little like melodrama. Still, The Walker for the most part is clever, with an unexpected performance by Woody Harrelson as the languid, gay Carter Page III, with a soft Southern accent and a wonderful wig. A couple of critics have said Harrelson was miscast. I don't think so. It just takes a few minutes to accept Harrelson, usually cast as grinning psychos or mentally deficient cowboys, as a tall, good-looking Truman Capote. Carter Page and his predicament with his ladies brings back memories of Capote thinking he was best pals with New York high society queens Babe Paley and Slim Keith, only to be cut dead by them when he dared to print the real dish. Capote proved to be both naïve and superficial (except when it came to his writing). So does Carter Page III until he starts putting the pieces together.

Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin and Kristin Scott Thomas are marvelous as Carter's realistic, witty, self-involved friends. They know the real dish; so does Carter; and they delight in sharing with each other. In fact, the movie has a number of first-rate actors, including Willem Dafoe, underused but effective as Lynn Lockner's ambitious husband, Moritz Bleibtreu as Carter's boyfriend and, particularly, Ned Beatty as Vice President Jack Delorean, a smiling, aging politician who is fully prepared to do whatever it takes to gain the advantage over anyone he thinks isn't American enough.

To see Kristen Scott Thomas at her coolest and most determined, watch that singular movie of entomology and incest, Angels & Insects. Lily Tomlin, in my view, is an extraordinary actor, able to combine tart, skeptical intelligence with unexpected warmth. Two of her earlier movies I like a lot are The Late Show and All of Me.

Boring
This movie was quite dull. I rented it because I like Woody and Kirsten, but honestly, they just didn't live up to expectations. This must be because of poor script and/or poor direction, because they're usually very reliable actors.

Woody's southern drawl is so difficult to get past, and I didn't really care how the plot resolved itself. I didn't really care about the characters, and I stopped watching 5 minutes before the end, because bed was more important than finding out what happened. Skip it.