The troublesome task of translating linear narrative-defying author Kurt Vonnegut for the big screen torpedoes this promising production that has been long in the works. Director Alan Rudolph tries his level best to make sense of Vonnegut's fractured narrative, but the writer's scattered, hallucinatory style results in a muddled, confusing morass of a film. What passes on the page as biting satire of American life becomes a mishmash of barely connected ideas and just plain dissonant moments. A fine cast including Bruce Willis, Albert Finney,and Nick Nolte try to ramp up the energy level with compelling performances, but the overall effect of their work is lost as the film unravels into a perplexing hash of aesthetic frustration. A valiant effort to tackle an important work by a challenging literary artist, Breakfast of Champions belongs squarely in the "noble failure" category.
