Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

s a director, George Clooney walks the straight and narrow. This is the odd story of game show host Chuck Barris who, if you believe his autobiography, worked as a CIA hit man while developing TV shows such as “The Dating Game” and “The Gong Show,” staples of the 70s and early 80s. Clooney believes it, sort of. He casts Sam Rockwell as a zany and possibly demented Barris. His girlfriend Penny (Drew Barrymore) is free-love flower child whose feet barely touch ground. Clooney plays a spy recruiter and Julie Roberts an appropriately mysterious Mata Hari. While Rockwell gives an immensely entertaining performance, the Barris story ultimately too vain to sustain an attractive narrative. An actor’s movie.