Simpatico

Simpatico follows three people whose shared past in horse-racing swindles still binds them twenty years later. As young schemers in California, Vinnie, Carter and Rosie ran a betting con that made them money and ruined the official who caught on to it. Their paths then split: Carter became a wealthy Kentucky breeder, married Rosie, and is preparing to sell a prized stallion, while Vinnie has ended up drinking his way through life in the Pomona area. Vinnie draws Carter back to California and sets out for Kentucky with old evidence of what they did, threatening the respectable life Carter has built. A grocery clerk named Cecilia becomes caught up in the effort to recover what Vinnie took.

Matthew Warchus directed and co-wrote the film with David Nicholls, adapting Sam Shepard's play. It was Warchus's first feature, arriving well before Pride and Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical. Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone lead the cast as Vinnie, Carter and Rosie, with Catherine Keener as Cecilia and Albert Finney as Simms.

Released in 1999, the film runs 106 minutes. Made for about 10 million dollars, it drew little attention: on IMDb it holds 4.7 from roughly 3,800 votes, on TMDB 4.9 from a small number of ratings, and its critics' score of 4.9 from 59 reviews sits close to those audience figures, indicating broadly negative reception from both sides.