whenever writer/director robert altman works in a specific genre , he has the tendency to rewrite it on his own terms . 
he made the west dirty in " mccabe and mrs . miller " ( 1971 ) , he parodied hard-boiled detective stories in " the long goodbye " ( 1973 ) , and he transformed a cartoon into flesh and blood with " popeye " ( 1980 ) . 
the same holds true for his most recent film , " the gingerbread man , " which reinvents a genre that has developed at an exponential rate over the last five years : the john grisham movie . 
by the time " the gingerbread man " was completed , there was very little evidence that it was ever based on a story by grisham . 
there's no idealist young lawyer ala tom cruise , matthew mcconaughey , chris o'donnell or matt damon , and it doesn't feature a great showdown in a courtroom . 
instead of being a grand ode to the powers of the legal profession , " the gingerbread man " is a rain-soaked , southern gothic noir thriller with wildly eccentric characters , a twisting plot line , black humor , a somewhat bleak ending , and even altman's trademark full-frontal female nudity . 
the central character of the film is rick magruder , who is unlike any of grisham's other lawyer heroes . 
he is older , experienced , and rich ; he drives a cherry-red $80 , 000 mercedes that never gets dirty , even in the incessantly pouring rain of savannah , georgia , where the story unfolds . 
rick is in the midst of an ugly divorce with his wife , leeanne ( famke janssen ) , and he rarely gets to see his two children , jeff ( jesse james ) and libby ( mae whitman ) . 
a reason is never given for the divorce , but it isn't hard to surmise that rick's womanizing had a large part in it . 
whenever he's late to pick up the kids on his visitation days , leeanne always assumes it's because he's been " screwing around . " 
after an office party celebrating another of his court victories ( he hasn't lost in eight years ) , rick becomes involved with mallory doss ( embeth davidtz ) , one of the catering waitresses . 
he drives her home because her car has been stolen , and they end up in bed together . 
rick finds out that mallory is being terrorized and stalked by her slightly psychotic father , dixon doss ( robert duvall ) , a grungy , stringy , bare-footed old man who leads a commune of other greasy old codgers . 
it was actually dixon who stole her car that night , and when rick asks why , mallory replies that he always does " weird " stuff like that . 
as another character puts it , dixon is " a few beers short of six-pack . " 
rick ends up convincing mallory to have dixon brought to court and tried for competency . 
he succeeds with information dug up by clyde pell , a private investigator friend ( robert downey jr . ) , and testimony from mallory's begrudging ex-husband , pete randle ( tom berenger ) . 
dixon is put in a mental hospital , but his commune buddies succeed in breaking him out . 
from there , the story delves into kidnapping , murder , double-crossing , and even a hurricane that adds an ominous cloud of constant violence to the action . 
altman's cinematographer , changwei gu , gives the film a dark , soaked look . 
if it isn't night-time , at least it's raining . 
gu shoots the interiors , which are almost all dark wood paneling , with a minimum of light . 
a great deal of the action takes place in the leafy georgia backwoods , which altman uses to create an acute sense of dread and vulnerability . 
in the city there is danger enough , but when rick has to venture into the woods , you can almost feel him leaving all hope of civilization behind as he literally enters another world . 
altman has worked in just about every conceivable genre , from westerns to epic dramas to comedies . 
but , no matter what the genre , he is always sure to give it the altman stamp , which usually consists of all kinds of idiosyncratic quirks and little details that are often missed without repeat viewings . 
 " the gingerbread man " is no different , although his style is much more restrained here . 
however , without those little touches , the film could have easily slumped into a routine action/thriller . 
a great deal of the credit for the film's success can be given to the actors , especially branagh , who rarely works outside of period pieces and his own direction . 
here , the british actor consistently maintains a serviceable southern drawl , while making an essentially contemptible character interesting and sympathetic . 
rick is an extremely flawed man , but branaugh brings real humanity to his character . 
without it , the entire film would fall flat because so much of it is reliant on the audience feeling rick's pain and frustration . 
the supporting actors also put in fine performances , including embeth davidtz , who is probably best known for her heart-breaking role as the jewish maid in " schindler's list " ( 1993 ) . 
tom berenger provides some gruff comic relief , and robert duvall spends most of his on-screen time just looking weird . 
it doesn't seem like he does much because he has very little spoken dialogue , but watch him closely during the film's one courtroom scene : his entire performance is in his eyes and his body language , and few actors could have pulled it off without being either silly or overbearing . 
while " the gingerbread man " isn't in league with altman's greatest works like " nashville " ( 1975 ) or " the player " ( 1992 ) , it is nonetheless a solid piece of genre filmmaking , which may prove a successful vehicle to restart his somewhat lagging career . 
some critics love to stamp films like this as " commercial , " as if altman can only maintain artistic integrity if his films are aimed at a tiny audience and don't make money . 
altman has done something much better : he took what could have been a generic movie , and by investing artistry and effort , he made it into something more .