Kansas City is actually one of Altman's most focused films. At first glance, it seems like we're in for another of those patented Altman ensembles that peg a particular place and time by presenting a dizzyingly broad spectrum of characters and stories. Unlike Nashville and Short Cuts, however, Kansas City chooses to concentrate on a single evocative storyline. The time is 1934, and Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Blondie O'Hara, a scrappy movie-addicted gal who just happens to be married to a small-time KC criminal (Dermot Mulroney). When her hubby runs afoul of a local gangster (Harry Belafonte) and is held prisoner in the basement of a jazz club, our heroine kidnaps Carolyn Stilton (Miranda Richardson), the wife of a local political bigwig, and tries to blackmail the politico into rescuing her husband. The film basically takes place in a single 24-hour period. As Blondie waits for help to arrive for her beloved Johnny, she and her kidnapee wander the streets of Kansas City taking in bits and pieces of that town's rich tapestry.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson are the central focus of this film, and they get to chew over some positively delicious lines. The two engage in the kind of clever love/hate banter that you usually only get to see in male bonding/buddy action flicks. They are both great at it. After The Hudsucker Proxy, Leigh has got this 1930s movie patter down pat. British actress Richardson is pure perfection as the occasionally coherent, laudanum-swilling housewife and deserves many more film roles than she gets in America.

While a worried Blondie wanders the late-night streets with Mrs. Stilson, a ruthless gangster is pondering poor Johnny's fate. Blondie's husband has been taken prisoner by Seldom Seen, a mysterious gambler who seems to control much of Kansas City's night life. Johnny has made the mistake of ripping off one of Seldom's clients, who has come into town for an all-night big-money gambling marathon. Naturally, Johnny must be punished. But how? Harry Belafonte is sublime as the rather philosophical gangster who'd rather listen to the all-night jazz jam upstairs than mete out underworld justice. Good to see Belafonte back in the spotlight where he obviously belongs.

The Kansas City of Altman's childhood (he was born there in 1925) is certainly a colorful setting for any film. While gangsters and powerful political bosses clashed for control on the city's streets, the jazz age was being born in the city's black nightclubs. Altman's work has obviously been influenced by the improvisational jazz musicians he saw as a child. Kansas City has been described as a tribute to the burgeoning jazz scene of 1930s America. While Kansas City is packed wall to wall with some incredible jazz performances, it merely provides the background for our story. Jazz isn't so much a musical style, I suppose, as an attitude. Altman has got the attitude.