Grade: A-

Verdict: Smart, fun, intricate and full of itself in a wonderful way.

Details: Starring Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Catherine Keener, David Duchovny and David Hyde Pierce. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Rated R for language and sexual content. One hour, 47 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for Full Frontal

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: Something we heard over and over on Sept. 11 was, "It was just like a movie!" — as if what we already knew could explain something unimaginable.

In his thrillingly good new movie, "Full Frontal," Steven Soderbergh turns that well-worn phrase inside out and upside down. He shows us that life is very much like a movie and — clever man — vice versa. "Full Frontal" is full of smoke and mirrors and then more smoke and more mirrors.

Movies within movies within movies within . . . well, you get the idea.

That's both this film's plot and the theme. Taking a page from the 1973 FrançoisTruffaut classic, "Day for Night," Soderbergh involves us in the making of a splashy Hollywood picture named "Rendezvous," and in what apparently is going on off-set — namely, a kind of Robert Altman/John Sayles explosion of characters and story threads, all somehow interconnected.

"Rendezvous" is rendered in glossy 35mm, while the stuff away from the camera is done in grainy digital video; the filmmaker gleefully cuts between the two. If Soderbergh can really confuse you, he will, and Coleman Hough's puzzle-movie script doesn't help much, either.

The movie "Rendezvous" is about a journalist named Catherine (played by world-famous actor Francesca, the Julia Roberts role), who falls for the actor she's profiling, Nicholas, played by emerging TV star, Calvin (Blair Underwood). Calvin — it would appear — is about to get his big break in a movie starring the real Brad Pitt and directed by the real David Fincher.

"Rendezvous" is written by Carl (David Hyde Pierce), who's married to the deeply unhappy and screwed-up Lee, a director of human resources who uses blow-up-globe therapy to ease the just-fired out the door. Carl's loving take on Lee: "She's like a dog who was hit by a car and is still walking, but some very, very important things inside her are damaged."

Carl is about to run into some damage himself. His steady job is writing for a magazine that seems to subsist on nothing but Brad Pitt covers. (Sample: Brad Pitt Wants to Boil Your Bunny.) When his boss asks if he drinks beer from the bottle or a glass, Carl chooses a glass. Wrong answer. Before firing him, the boss blusters, "I want this magazine to be drunk out of the bottle."

Meanwhile, Lee's sister Linda (Mary McCormack), a masseuse, is going on a "rendezvous" herself, with a guy she met over the Internet. He describes himself as a 22-year-old painter when he's actually a thirtysomething fringe theater director (Enrico Colantoni) currently staging, "The Sound and the Fuhrer," which was also written by Carl. Linda becomes part of the "Rendezvous" roundelay when she gives a massage-plus to Gus (David Duchovny), the film's producer, who's celebrating his 40th birthday later that evening.

I think that's right. Or close enough. Anyway, it all adds up to a you-won't-see-this-coming finale. "Full Frontal" is a looking-glass movie that draws us deeper and deeper until we pretty much end up where we were. Only, we didn't know it.

At this stage, having directed intricate indie wonders ("sex, lies, and videotape," "The Limey," "Out of Sight"), a glossy money-maker ("Ocean's Eleven") and Oscar-winning blockbusters ("Traffic," "Erin Brockovich"), Soderbergh can do just about anything he wants.

It's fascinating — and telling, perhaps — that he would choose something like this film, shot in 18 days for under $2 million, using mostly natural sets and lighting.

In a way, "Full Frontal" reflects where the director finds himself these days — a certified Hollywood A-lister who still can shift back to a small film before the window of celebrity shuts for good.

The ensemble cast is terrific, from Roberts (who sports Jane Fonda's "Klute" hair) to the edgy and disappointed Keener to Duchovny's pampered, off-handedly sleazy Hollywood producer. And Underwood's rap poem on the status of blacks in Hollywood is spectacular (when Catherine earnestly brings the issue up to Calvin, he smiles, "OK, I can go in that direction.")

The stand-out, however, is "Frasier's" David Hyde Pierce who, if things fall right, could snag a supporting actor Oscar nomination. He manages to be poignant and hilarious in the same scene. And when he forlornly cuddles his dog after the pet has inadvertently swallowed a good pile of hashish brownies, the actor will break your heart, just as he made you laugh five minutes ago when he defiantly pours his beer into a glass.

From the opening credits of "Rendezvous," to the very last shot, "Full Frontal" flirts with us and fools us, teases us, then tosses in an astonishing observation or two.

None of the actors prance around naked in "Full Frontal," but Soderbergh's perception of making movies in a time of reality shows and unreal blockbusters does. Here, as they say, is the naked truth about how it all is just like a movie.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service