Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Georgetown’ on Hulu, in Which Christoph Waltz Directs Himself as a Real-Life Barracuda Con Man

Now on Hulu, Georgetown finds Christoph Waltz directing himself in a character study-slash-mystery – and typecasting himself a bit, as a charming shyster with a meticulously styled demeanor, not too far removed from the duplicitous villains he played in Inglourious Basterds, the James Bond franchise and, um, The Legend of Tarzan? Yeah, sure, The Legend of Tarzan. So it’s Waltz Weaselly Smile time, and also BOATS (Based On A True Story) movie time, as Georgetown was inspired by a real-life slippery Washington D.C. eel who conned his way into associations with senators and the like before getting himself into some major trouble. Waltz managed to get Annette Bening and Vanessa Redgrave to join the cast. Sound tantalizing? Let’s see if the film meets its potential.

GEORGETOWN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ulrich Mott (Waltz) stands atop a desert hill wearing a khaki uniform and red beret, commanding a battalion of Iraqi special-ops soldiers. He looks very important, majestic, serious. Then we see him serving cocktails and hors d’oeuvres to what appears to be very important white people, in a lovely, classical-modern Georgetown home. Amanda Breht (Bening) comes in the door, and is surprised to see a house full of dinner-party guests. Elsa Breht (Redgrave) makes her way down the steps like the guest of honor; she’s a retired journalist, a widow married to Ulrich, who’s a few decades her junior.

It’s clear this gathering is a schmoozefest, and it’s also clear that Ulrich is laying it on thick, like a half-pound of butter on a slim slice of toast. It’s enough to disgust the already-perturbed Amanda, who departs with a flourish, and who can blame her? Ulrich is insufferable, an obvious phony, but his shtick works in this particular upper social echelon of gladhanding shoe-polisher lobbyist D.C. You’d want to get the hell out of there too, before the stink sticks to you. That night, Ulrich and Elsa argue. He dons his red beret, grabs a cigar and goes for a walk. Jump ahead: An ambulance is parked outside the house. Paramedics zip up Elsa’s body bag. She was 91.

Amanda and Ulrich are at odds, seemingly as ever. How, exactly, did Elsa die? It doesn’t smell right, and the cops say they’re going to investigate it as a homicide. Actually, how, exactly, did a fellow of European descent who apparently did something important in Iraq in the early/mid-2000s wind up the beau of an aging D.C. socialite? Are some flashbacks in order? You betcha. They’re titled things like THE INTERN and THE DIPLOMAT, and they depict Ulrich as a conniving schemer making his way up social and political ladders, weaving an extraordinary narrative of his life and selling it to suckers, suckers with connections, and sometimes suckers who are pretty high up the chain. Sometimes, he wears a highly comical eyepatch, apparently just to see if he can get away with it, although he doesn’t do that with poor Elsa, who has plenty of intellectual faculties, but sure likes the gentlemanly manner in which he treats her. What’s the deal with this guy?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Georgetown is of a sorts with impersonator dramas, scam-artist procedurals and delusional-wacko stories like The Informant!, American Hustle, and Catch Me if You Can.

Performance Worth Watching: Waltz casts himself smack within his wheelhouse, and explores a few paths here: Sociopath, pathological and possibly psychopath. The character exists to manipulate, obfuscate and flummox people, and watching the actor’s wheels spin as he plays a calculating, quick-thinking serial equivocator is frequently enjoyable.

Memorable Dialogue: Ulrich: “I have at every stage been completely candid,” he says, damn well aware he’s been selling everyone emotional and intellectual Amway

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The goal of Georgetown appears to be to keep this character out of our grasp, to maintain the what’s-his-damage/where-did-he-come-from/why-is-he-doing-this mystery at the core of the plot. You know how you can never truly know another person? Well, you especially can’t know this person, whose motive is as dense as something way at the bottom of the periodic table, and who may not even understand his own intent. He’s far gone, an agent of chaos, a chronic shitstirring mischiefmonger who sure seems to enjoy the art of the chase, from the perspective of the chasee. Please note, this isn’t a spoiler, because we can smell Ulrich’s hooey from the moment Waltz first smears that unreliable smile across his mug, ingratiating himself into the first of many grossly specious situations.

It’s amusing how this story of a compulsive con artist unfolds within American political high society, a situation that’s ripe for potential satire or farce. But Waltz doesn’t spin anything substantial from the subtext, leaving his own motive for telling this particular story opaque. It comes precariously close to being a vanity project, an exercise for the actor-director to set himself up to succeed, to play a character who’s almost comfortingly familiar, predictable in his unpredictability. The movie is focused wholly on his performance, pushing Bening and Redgrave to the sidelines – frustrating, because the material is failing them – so Waltz can coat himself with oil and wriggle in and out of precarious situations. It’s not quite the high-wire act it could’ve been, Waltz settling for medium-wire, medium-stakes drama with medium-entertaining results.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Waltz’s performance isn’t on par with his Oscar-winning roles, but it’s good enough to warrant a watch as long as we keep our expectations modest.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.