The Cutting Room

Rating:
Summary: A Witty and Suspenseful Novel That is Fun to Read
Review: Reading is a compulsory activity for some of us. I'm addicted; I almost always have to be reading something --- whether I'm listening to music, watching television, eating, waiting, talking on the telephone or, ah, driving. Not a good idea I know. I'm trying to cut back, but it's tough. As with a great many compulsions, reading started out being fun --- in my case, Dick Tracy comic books at the local drugstore --- and has taken on a life of its own. It's still fun and enjoyable, of course, but those elements take an almost secondary role, and it's tough getting started on a 12-step program with reading when your higher power is Random House. Once in a while, however, you pick up a book that reminds you that reading is supposed to be FUN. And that brings us to THE CUTTING ROOM by Laurence Klavan.

This is an almost noir mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously. It revolves around Roy Milano, a New York City film aficionado who is a self-styled expert in all things celluloid. Milano finds himself unexpectedly drawn into danger and intrigue when he is invited by Alan Gilbert, an acquaintance and rival, to witness a private screening of a legendary, long lost film: the complete, unreleased print of Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons. Milano arrives at Gilbert's apartment only to find his erstwhile host dead and the film gone. Milano's compulsion --- compulsions really make the world go round, don't they? --- leads him on a wild chase across the country to Los Angeles, then halfway around the world to Barcelona and back again, all in pursuit of a film whose existence is at best apocryphal.

Milano introduces fellow film buffs along the way, broadly drawn eccentrics, and you will recognize at least one of them within your own circle of friends. He also unexpectedly encounters the granddaughter of the great man himself, a beautiful lady with secrets of her own. Toss in a couple of surprise allies, some unexpected enemies and a whole bunch of sedate but interesting plot twists, and you have a print version of one of those madcap ensemble movies from the 1960s, kind of a print version of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

The best part of the book, however, is Milano's penchant for dropping bits of film trivia here, there and everywhere throughout his narrative, usually appropriately, occasionally not, but always entertainingly. You're almost guaranteed to learn something. I never knew why Mr. Briggs was replaced by Mr. Phelps in the television version of Mission: Impossible until I read this book. More knowledge, imminently useful or not, waits within.

Klavan has a winner with THE CUTTING ROOM and with Milano. Klavan's background in film and theater runs deep, which gives this fine novel and its characters that ring of authenticity that cannot be artificially manufactured. Most of all, however, THE CUTTING ROOM is fun to read. And --- great news --- Milano will be back. I hope he brings more film trivia with him.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: Great idea , poor execution
Review: This was a great concept for a book. But it turns into a zany comic novel that never lives up to the concept. Too bad, all film buffs have had dreams about seeing a complete Welles version of the masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining with over-the-top but sympathetic characters
Review: When a fellow movie trivia buff tells Roy Milano he's found the holy grail of film--the original director's cut of Orson Welles's Magnificent Ambersons, Roy can hardly wait to see the screening. But when he arrives at his friends house, he finds the movie gone and his friend murdered. Now Roy sets out on a mission--to find the movie and see it for himself. If he can help find the actual killer, so much the better. Working his way through the slightly weird clan of fellow trivia buffs, and soon joined by one of the rare attractive females in the group, Roy heads to Hollywood, Spain, and Boston in search of the elusive movie.

It doesn't take Roy long to realize that he's onto something major. He seems to run into fists at least as often as clues, but he also finds people who think he knows more than he does--and who are willing to give him money to help them find what they want. Because outside of the narrow world of old-film cultists, the Magnificent Ambersons is simply another ancient flick. Roy's single-minded obsession nearly gets him killed--which makes him better off than most of the people he comes in contact with. Eventually Roy tracks down the movie, but having it only increases the danger.

Author Laurence Klavan dishes up an over-the-top adventure with an unlikely trivia-nerd hero who, nevertheless, manages to be sympathetic and even get his share of the girls. Fast-paced action, badly flawed characters, and America's obsession with the movie industry provide plenty of reader interest. Klavan's high-quality writing held my interest and kept me turning the pages--I read the entire book in one sitting. The twist at the end worked for me--adding to the emotional impact of a fine novel.