Review: The Cutting Room

There are times when trivia is no longer a trivial matter. In Laurence Klavan's hardcover debut The Cutting Room, it's a matter of death.

Klavan won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1984 for writing Mrs. White under the pseudonym Margaret Tracy. Theatergoers will know him for the libretto for the Obie-award winning musical, Bed and Sofa. It's taken him two decades to get back in the mystery saddle again and this ride is as original as them come.

Roy Milano is a freelance typesetter by day, but by night he's able to pursue his life's passion, the discovery, discussion and dissection of movie trivia. His obsession with movie trivia broke up his marriage, peppers all his conversations and keeps all but fellow film aficionados at bay. He receives a call that any movie buff would long to receive from the host of a public-access cable trivia show called My Movies. The host (and Roy's rival), Alan Gilbert, claims he has the never-released, uncut original of Orson Welles's masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons. Roy is beside with glee and speeds his ways to Gilbert's door. When he arrives, he finds Gilbert's apartment in disarray and Gilbert in an overstuffed chair, dead as a doornail. Missing is the Welles film and Gilbert's cameraman, Gus Ziegler.

Determined to find what many consider to be the best-made American film ever made, Roy soon finds himself entangled in a real-life mystery and circling the globe in pursuit of his treasure. At his side is Jeanine Blount, who Roy thinks of as a cross between Morticia Adams and E.T. She is a fellow trivia fan and is just as eager as Roy to track down the elusive Ambersons. The first stop is Los Angeles, in hot pursuit of Ziegler and the can of film. It seems action star Ben Williams is keen on making his directorial debut by re-making… The Magnificent Ambersons. Roy quells a shudder of horror at the thought and is then faced with another challenge. The next piece of the puzzle is in the hands of the stunningly beautiful Erendira, who has just headed back to her native Spain. Ben sends the intrepid fan turned detective after her and the real story behind the story begins to unfold. But all is not revealed until the nerve-racking and bittersweet finale at the Rhinebeck Film Fair in the upstate New York. The childish fan that began the journey with nothing to lose ends up a thoughtful man with everything to lose.

The Cutting Room is both a charming and conscientious homage to Hollywood while a mystery of fine caliber. Klavan has created an ungainly and engaging hero in Roy Milano. To see Milano emerge from an ungainly and unlikely detective who has no interest in whodunit into a courageous, modest hero that still rides the bus is a treat. Expertly walking the fine line between pulpy, noir style and Woody Allen like narration, The Cutting Room deserves top billing.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan

Book Review: The Cutting Room