City of Ghosts (2002)

Jimmy (Matt Dillon) sold property insurance but the company fails to pay after a hurricane. The police investigates. The offshore accounts have been liquidated. Jimmy claims to be a hired hand and the owner has disappeared. He goes to Thailand to talk to his contact Joseph Kaspar (Stellan Skarsgård). Their boss Marvin (James Caan) has disappeared with their cut. He is supposedly in Cambodia on the run from the Russians. He checks into a hotel run by Emile (Gérard Depardieu) but his passport is stolen. He comes to the rescue for Sophie (Natascha McElhone).The story is flat and has no tension. It goes from one place to another for no particular reason. Presumably he could have called Kaspar but then he wouldn't be in Thailand. The stock characters are pulled from Graham Greene novels. This is much more of a travelogue. The movie has no movement or flow. It's a lot of waiting around in the first half. I love the foreign locations but there isn't anything more. Matt Dillon probably bit off more than he could chew.

Don't be put off by the IMDb score (currently 5.9), take a look at the reviews and you'll see that a lot of viewers loved it.While it is a far from perfect movie, and I can see why the majority of people wouldn't really enjoy it, it does contain atmospheric qualities rarely found in modern films. The story itself is fairly simple, but the settings and authenticity of the whole environment is perfectly captured, and allows the viewer to get a good feel of life in modern Cambodia. The performances are excellent and Matt Dillon can take pride in the fact that while the City of Ghosts was never a mainstream hit, he has made a movie that offers something others don't.

This is one of the few sleazy films that I've seen more than once and will continue to watch every couple of years. Perhaps it's just because I love the colors in here and it's a strange movie, a strange story in an exotic locale: Cambodia. Exotic, but you wouldn't want to live there, at least the parts shown in this film!Although showing a lot of dingy city scenes, the Cambodian scenery was fascinating. I found the story to be, too, only if to find out what was in store next for the lead character played by Matt Dillon. There are so many bizarre characters in here, nobody that you can really trust, that it keeps you on edge.Another odd thing about this film: it's quite a mixture of international actors: Dillon and James Caan, both from the United States; Natasha Melhone from Great Britain, Gerald Depardieu from France, Stellan Skarggard from Sweden and Kem Sereyvuth from Cambodia. The latter is the only truly nice person in the whole movie, playing Dillon's faithful guide, "Sok."The movie, which plays like a film noir, gets a bit ugly at the end but is well worth your time.

I've seen the movie "blindly" (citing one of the comments) and the feeling was for story not so good but having excellent "screen life" – the picture was not boring, with VERY good camera (do you remember how the camera was jumping intriguingly just for a part of second on various objects, over tiny details and fugitive images suggesting the plot). The song of Marvin was impressive and highlighting. Depardieu is notable as usual. The love thread is banal. For Cambodia - yet its tragedy remains unrevealed for the screen and stories like this remain only amusing except the real scenery and original faces. It's worth to see and to think.