in spite of it impressive cast and crew pedigree gingerbread man crumble early and often . the plot be unrealistically convolute and the actor sport bad accent and director robert altman participation amount to collect a pay check . once again he have assemble an impressive cast ( like woody allen and everyone want to work with altman ) that this time around to the letter be miscast . but that only part of the problem . kenneth branagh be rick magruder a high power georgia lawyer who in the film heavy hand open scene manages to get himself preposterously seduce by a mysterious catering company waitress who convince him she be in grave danger from an ex husband and a loony dad . with red flag everywhere the astute lawyer plod on even manage to get his child in harm way . fight of gun and fist follow along with a requisite car chase and if that not enough there a hurricane thrown in for the ridiculous finale . branagh play macgruder with a mealy and unconvincing southern accent . run around in a trench coat in all kind of weather he blind to the obvious in order to keep the story go . hipster bob downey jr. be every bit as bad a a p. i. but with a little more emphasis on the bad accent . robert duvall a the old man be boo radely all grow up en crazy than a bed bug serve some thick slice of ham but at least his twang be plausible . the female lead ( embeth davidtz and darryl hannah and famkhee jansen ) be lean leggy and unemotive . even the celebrity lawyer do cameo ( vernon jordan ) be wooden with the few throw away line they have . in addition to pay little attention to his actor and altman mise en scene drip with spanish moss be murky and shapeless and his action scene comic book . it lack his offbeat touch and observation ( he do inform the viewer that the star and bar still wave in georgia ) that make a well do altman so unique . unfortunately and gingerbread man be altman at his bad and even if the pay be the same .