A new film directed by Timothy Linh Bui is now available on DVD, reuniting Timothy with Oscar-winning star Forest Whitaker and Patrick Swayze, plus other big names such as Jessica Biel and Ray Liotta.
The film can be rented at Blockbuster or online on Netflix, and other places where movies are rented.
Timothy is, of course, the older of the Bui brothers that brought us Three Seasons and Green Dragon. It was on Green Dragon that Timothy first directed Whitaker and Swayze.
The film’s story, based on the oft-observed presmise that life is full of strange coincidences and serendipitous intersections, is co-written by Timothy and another Viet filmmaker, Stephane Gauger the director of Owl and the Sparrow. (Read more about Owl here and here.)
The four principal characters lead their separate, and desperate, lives — except for one guy, a mortician named after the typewriter keyboard (Qwerty), who’s strange but not desperate. These lives then intersect in the most extraordinary ways. If the Bolsavik were glib, he’d say this film is something like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams meets Crash.”
In Powder Blue, Forest Whitaker (first photo above; The Crying Game; Panic Room; Oscar winner for The Last King of Scotland) plays an ex-priest with a death wish. Unable to commit suicide as against Catholic teaching, he goes around with a loaded gun and a suitcase of cash seeking someone willing to off him.
Ray Liotta (second photo; Goodfellas; Smokin Aces) plays an ex-con, a former hit man just out of a long 25-year sentence. Facing a world totally transformed, he’s seeking redemption with one big good deed.
Jessica Biel (third photo; TV’s 7th Heaven; Blade: Trinity; Stealth) is a single mother with a son in a coma, 
and she does odd jobs an dancing in a bar to meet the mounting medical bills. Patrick Swayze (right) plays the slick guy in the bar, but he’s not her consolation – that one comes in the form of her pet dog. She becomes truly desperate when the dog went missing.
But the ex-priest does not meet the other two – yet. The one he meets is a young eccentric mortician who’s named after the typing keyboard – Qwerty Doolittle, played by Eddie Redmayne, a star of British television. In danger of losing his business, and with the ex-priest’s proposal, Qwerty faces a decision that could change his life.
Other big names appearing in the film include Kris Kristofferson (A Start Is Born; Country Music Hall of Fame) and Lisa Kudrow (TV’s Friends; Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion; The Opposite of Sex).
I was hoping this movie will be showing at your local movie theaters. This is too bad. It goes straight to DVD.
Kris Kristofferson is not a major celebrity. Neither is Lisa Kudrow. If it went straight to DVD, then it is most likely a major flop. Better luck next time…
Bad & Suck!