The lurid world of Hollywood excess sprawls before you in a fit of paranoia, egged on by a stunning cast that drags the best out of a flawed script.
Sean Penn is Eddie, a Hollywood casting agent who lives with his business partner Mickey (Spacey). Eddie is an intense man, fuelled by an incredible coke habit and a fondness for the odd drink or three. Mickey is far more sober about his life and as a result, Kevin Spacey has little in the way of real acting work to do.
Stumbling through this mayhem are struggling actor Chazz Palminteri and writer/producer Garry Shandling. While Penn's frustrations spill over into manic streams of hyperbole, Palminteri vents his darker side through uncontrollable violence. Anna Paquin and Meg Ryan are the unlucky recipients of this rage.
While this might all sound like the recent "Permanent Midnight", you'll be glad to know that "Hurly Burly" is a far more dangerous and exciting affair. Unfortunately it suffers from the usual problems associated with adapting a stage play into a movie. At nearly two hours long, it gets a little tough going when the likes of Penn and Palminteri go on manic rants that never lead to any conclusion. And setting most of the film in a house confines the action, leading to a greater reliance on the script, which could be snappier.
There are some brilliant lines in the movie though and the cast is razor sharp with Penn at his vitriolic best.