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We're not done yet. By no means. This ensemble cast is enormous, and apparently includes every actor Robert Altman ever took a shine to. Jack Lemmon shows up as Davison's father. Casey's neighbor is cello player Lori Singer, whose mother is jazz singer Annie Ross. We can't forget phone sex queen Jennifer Jason Leigh, married to pool cleaner Chris Penn. They are friends with horror film makeup artist Robert Downey Jr, whose wife is Lili Taylor. The name of Taylor's character is Honey Bush (I don't make these things up), which seems more suited to an Austin Powers satire.
That pretty much wraps the cast up, except for pop singer Huey Lewis, art collector Alex Trebek, pervert fisherman Buck Henry, baker and phone abuser Lyle Lovett, and two lovely young bikers named Barbara and Nancy.
How others will see it. The film's real audience consists of movie fans, who enjoy playing the game of Name That Actor. Those who instead try to follow the plot may instead lose track of all the many supporting characters (there are no leads) and their relationships with each other. This movie is also stocked with little kids, none of whom (aside from the unfortunate Casey and confirmed innocent Chad) have consequential roles.
Women may see Short Cuts as a puzzle to be solved. Is so and so a boyfriend or a husband? How could all these troubled marriages produce so many children? The actresses tend to have the better characters. The male actors are jerks except for noble Bruce Davison, the television news personality. There are plenty of good-looking women for men to gawk at, and at least three of these show considerable skin.
How I felt about it. You can't tell the players without a program, and if they wore numbers on their backs, then one could refer to a chart that lists each with the name of their character, their occupation, and their spouse/squeeze/children/parent. The film does go on and on for three hours, just enough time to connect most of the dots.
But perhaps the film goes on too long, since the ending combines a mindless murder and a needless 7.4 Richter scale earthquake. Perhaps it should have ended with McDormand returning home to her newly shampooed carpets and demolished possessions. Serves her right, since she rejects her husband, lies to her boyfriend, and goes on a jaunt with a second boyfriend while taking her young Chad along. A great mother she is, although the only decent couple in the whole cast is MacDowell and Davison.
This is a film where no one is a clerk or an accountant. Instead, they are brain surgeons, nude painters, cellists, jazz singers, policemen, traffic helicopter pilots, television newsmen, phone sex actresses, etc. And they all lie to their most intimate partners.
The one interesting character turn has creepy cop Robbins becoming a family man. Must have taken McDormand's infidelities hard. Then again, his wife is the best looker in the cast.