Ambition (I) (1991)

In this rather quirky script and story written by the star of Ambition, Lou Diamond Phillips, Lou is playing aspiring writer Mitchell Osgood who is supporting himself by running a second hand bookshop. He has to have that job because as a writer he's not making it.

Ambition was the first film in which Lou Diamond Phillips plays an Asian American. In his mixed bag of ethnicity, part of Lou's heritage is Filipino and he plays one here. He is also besides failed writer and bookshop manager, closest relative to Haing S. Ngor playing his father and whose health care demands are cutting into his time.

Lou is taking as an inspiration no doubt, Truman Capote and what he did with In Cold Blood, in the way he was able to capture the souls and personalities of a pair of killers. He's got one in mind now who is coming up for parole played by Clancy Brown. Lou goes to some considerable lengths to befriend him and even fires someone at the bookstore just to get him a job.

If you think you've figured out which way Ambition is headed for a conclusion from what I've written you are wrong. The screenplay that Lou Diamond Phillips fashioned here is quite original and will startle you with its conclusion.

What a project like Ambition needed was a director like Alfred Hitchcock. Sad to say it didn't get that. Also it didn't have the biggest of budgets to work with.

Still it's an interesting work and a treat for fans of Lou Diamond Phillips.