2001 / 123 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Jason Jones

I have never considered myself to be a fan of Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt. I believe both of them to be highly overrated actors, who just so happen to be able to get people to fork out astronomical fees just to see their movies. Between the two of them, I have only seen one of their movies in the theater (Pitt’s “Fight Club” for those of you scoring at home) Oddly enough though, over the past couple of years, the two of them have started to endear themselves to me. First it was Brad with a couple of his older films that I had overlooked, “12 Monkeys” and “Seven”, and then it was Julia with “Notting Hill” and “Erin Brockovich”. Now I have actually grown to tolerate them, which explains why I actually gave a film involving the two of them a chance. While “The Mexican” is not as good as the aforementioned endearing films, it is a lot more fun than any of them, with the exception of “Notting Hill” that is.

Pitt plays a born screwup, named Jerry, who, after an unfortunate lapse in judgment behind the wheel, finds himself pulling jobs for some rather seedy individuals. Just when he thinks he can get out of this situation, he is sent on one last errand, which will take him to Mexico in search of an antique gun. As if this wasn’t bad enough he has to come home to his girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts), who does nothing but bitch and moan about her needs not being met. In the words of the esteemed George Carlin: “Drop some of your needs!!!” Instead of uttering these immortal words Jerry heads for Mexico and Samantha heads for Las Vegas where she gets abducted by a gay hitman by the name of Leroy (James Gandolfini). The gayness alone should tell you that this is not your typical hitman, but there is a lot more to him. He lends a sympathetic ear to Samantha, gives her relationship advice, and wears his emotions on his sleeve no matter what they may be.

While Leroy and Samantha pal around Nevada, Jerry continuously finds new ways to get himself into trouble south of the border. Eventually his bad luck coupled with his innate ability to screws things up leads his employers back home to believe he might have designs on selling the gun and making off with the loot. Somehow he has to get the gun, the girl, and most importantly, save his own ass before it’s too late.

There are a few reasons why I enjoyed this film so much. First of all was the freshness of the story and how well it all fit together. You don’t hear about antique guns, gay hitmen, crazy girlfriends, and incompetent heroes making up the substance of a major motion picture every day, now do you? It’s also one of those nicely crafted movies where, what seems like a small event in one scene, ends up playing a key role in a later scene.

Another great thing about “The Mexican” is that it knows enough not to take itself to seriously. It’s a rare film that balances all emotional elements very well, even at their extremes.

There’s a scene that is powerful enough to upset one enough to have the urge to cry and it is followed by a scene that makes the blood boil to the point that you are emotionally spent after the film finally gives you what you want. Now I know that all sounds pretty serious, but the film supplements these turbulent scenes with a clever wit to lighten the mood the rest of the time.

The majority of the aforementioned key points of enjoyment are made possible by the brilliant performance of James Gandolfini as the incredibly sympathetic hitman, Leroy. He sheds tears, becomes enraged, and just falt out exudes life so convincingly that it is difficult to think that the man is acting. One minute he’s killing people, or threatening lives and the next he’s crying over his inability to maintain relationships. I realize this stuff is shot over the course of months, but I don’t think that takes anything anyway from the incredible emotional arc that is on display here. Definitely one of the finest performances of the year from a fine character actor, who is finally beginning to get his due.

Speaking of people getting their due. I’ve got to give it up to Brad Pitt. He really impressed me here. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance and I think it’s a performance that he enjoyed giving. The futility of the whole situation plays through him in many scenes. His laughter and ingenuity under harsh circumstances feel very genuine. It’s almost as if someone forget to tell him that he’s not supposed to enjoy being kicked when he’s down. A few more performances like this and he may make a fan of me yet.

Oh and Julia you ask? Well she doesn’t really add anything to the film. Mainly she just bitches a lot and makes a sappy little puppy dog face. That’s the performance in a nutshell. Sorry Julia. Thanks for calling! Unfortunately it takes a little more than you just showing up and collecting your paycheck to make me care about whatever it is that you’re trying to say.

My only real complaints with the film are Julia’s lack of a performance, the somewhat intrusive score, and the fact that the film goes from “A” material to life support for a large portion of the final half hour. When I say “somewhat intrusive score” I mean that there were a few times where it was playing in spots where it shouldn’t have been. There was even one time when I was so perplexed by it’s placement and composition that I had to pause the film to make sure that the disruptive noise wasn’t coming from elsewhere. Unfortunately it was emanating from the film itself, which troubled me on more than one occasion. This is one of the few times when a film score bothered me like that. In fact it may be the only time. Crazy as it may sound, it stands as a fault in the film by my standards.

The final half hour, on the other hand, could have been really good. It has a great cameo appearance by a two-time Academy Award winner whose appearance in the film I had forgotten about, thus making for a pleasant surprise when he/she turned up. Inspired cameo aside though, this last portion of the film needed to have some serious fat trimmed. If I had to make an estimate I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of ten minutes could have been eliminated, which would have made it a much tighter and more satisfying conclusion.

The film does a nice job of resolving things, tying up loose ends and all of that nonsense, but it just keeps going. Hey Verbinski! You don’t need it. The film ends when it decides to end, not when you choose to have it end. To flub up such a well crafted film in the late innings is simply unacceptable. Make a mental note not to make the same mistake twice please.

Misguided conclusion aside, “The Mexican” is a fun little film that knows it’s place in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t have any grand aspirations. It merely exists to entertain which is something it does on practically every level. Thus making it a little bit of fun for everyone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2001 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.