the gingerbread man be the first thriller i have ever do . robert altman in 1955 charles laughton direct the night of the hunter and a spooky slice of southern gothic in which robert mitchum play a scary serial killer . one of the film more famous sequence consists of two kid escape from mitchum on a rowboat and the kid frantically paddle whilst mitchum wade after them like a monster . seven year later mitchum play an equally spooky killer in cape fear and another film set in the american south . that film feature a local attorney try to protect his family and likewise end with mitchum terrorise folk on a boat . in 1991 martin scorsese and try to branch out and tackle something more mainstream and remade cape fear and boat scene and all . now we have robert altman the gingerbread man and another slice of small town southern gothic . altman say he consult the night of the hunter for inspiration and tackle such a mainstream film purely because he want to spread his wing and try a popcorn picture and but what he secretly attempt to do here be deconstruct the canonical film of the southern gothic genre . so instead of a showdown on small boat and we get a showdown on a giant ship . instead of two kid be kidnap and we get two kid be safely return to the police . instead of money be hide and we have money be readily give via a last will and testament . instead of the righteous attorney of the 1961 film and the deplorable attorney of the 1991 remake and we get a rather three dimensional lawyer in kenneth branagh . instead of the monster chase the family we get the hero chase the bad guy . instead of the monster break into the family house boat and we have the hero hunt the monster on board the monster house ship . similarly and instead of a murderous serial killer we get an innocent weirdo play by robert duvall . . . etc etc etc . altman go on and on and reverse everything just a little slightly and pull at the edge and do his own thing . his touch be most apparent during the film first half hour and the film exist in an uneasy space between conventional plot drive movie storytelling and altman fondness for overlap dialogue and casual narrative and prowl camera movement and the way that character aren not so much introduce a they be simply part of what go on . still and despite altman best intention and the film never rise above mediocrity . altman too bind to the convention of the thriller format to do much damage and his style be too lethargic to generate tension and the film be simply not radical enough to counterpoint other canonical film in the genre . gingerbread man be thus too mainstream to work a a more pure altman film and too altman to work a a mainstream thriller . the film not a complete waste and though . robert downey junior and kenneth branagh and the usually intolerable daryl hannah and all turn in juicy performance . the film also have a nice atmosphere and set against a approaching hurricane and and the final act contain some interesting twist and turn . while it not the complete disaster that scorsese cape fear be and the film still never amount to anything special . positive in the late 90 altman make 3 successive film set in the american south represent kansa city and gingerbread man and cookie fortune . unlike gingerbread man and both kansa city and cookie fortune tackle the genre on the broad and more loose canvas that altman be most comfortable with . kansas city be the more important of these two film and it hierarchy of class and politics and crime and and it desire to break radically away from typical gangster genre framework and would prove influential on all serious 21st century film crime writer ( see and for example and the wire ) . that say and cookie fortune and while a much slight tale and be perhaps the good picture . note represent altman claim that this be his first thriller and but he direct image and an art house thriller and in 1972. worth one viewing .