Sep 18th 2025

The Chicago Film Society Presents: COOKIE’S FORTUNE (1999) on 35mm

@ Gene Siskel Film Center

164 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601

Opening Thursday, September 18th, at 6PM

Look out, Reno: the biggest little city in the world may, in fact, be Holly Springs, Mississippi, home to the catfish enchilada and a boisterous extended family that revolves around widowed matriarch Jewel Mae “Cookie” Orcutt (Patricia Neal). Everyone knows everyone else and amicably marinates in everyone’s business — until Cookie is found dead from a gunshot wound. Cookie’s niece Camille (Glenn Close) can’t help embellishing the crime scene for dramatic impact, much as she feels called to improve upon Oscar Wilde for the Easter production of Salome that she’s directing at the First Presbyterian Church. The sheriff (Ned Beatty) half-heartedly detains Willis (Charles S. Dutton), Cookie’s live-in handyman and crossword puzzle collaborator, but can’t seriously believe his own fishing buddy would be capable of murder. Emma (Liv Tyler), Cookie’s grand-niece and the undisputed parking ticket queen of Marshall County, knows Willis is innocent and bears witness by camping out in his jail cell, which is, not inconveniently, a few paces from the Coke machine that’s the sturdiest headboard in town for trysts with her sheriff’s deputy boyfriend Jason (Chris O’Donnell). A neglected entry in Altman’s sprawling filmography, COOKIE’S FORTUNE starts with a Southern Gothic set-up but delivers something closer to a rakish, pastel-colored Sunday morning comic strip. Altman’s career does not lack for sprawling ensemble pieces festooned with sociological detail, but this one might be the first that’s downright friendly, a spring breeze that swirls through Holly Springs and goes down like a glass of Wild Turkey. (KW)

 

COOKIE’S FORTUNE (1999)
Tickets: $13 at the door or purchase in advance

DIRECTED BY Robert Altman
WRITTEN BY Anne Rapp
STARRING Charles S. Dutton, Liv Tyler, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close
RUN TIME 118 minutes
PRODUCTION COMPANY Moonstone Entertainment
PRINT SOURCE 35mm from Universal

PRECEDED BY: Robert Altman trailer reel – 10 min – 35mm

Presented by Chicago Film Society
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