This Ain't No Cartoon
Jerry and Tom
directed by Saul Rubinek
starring Joe Mantegna, Sam Rockwell, Maury Chaykin, Ted Danson, Charles Durning,
William H. Macy
The movie opens with a couple of guys sitting in a closed, empty bar, waiting
for a phone call. Another guy's in a chair a few feet away, trussed up, with a sack
over his head. We all know what's going on here, and we're hooked right away. As
they all wait for the fateful phone call, they talk, tell jokes (the tied-up guy
tells the funniest ones), and the history of Tom (Joe Mantegna) and his young associate
Jerry (Sam Rockwell) unfolds in flashback.
Jerry and Tom are used-car salesmen, but after hours they're hit men for their boss
at the car lot, Billy (Maury Chaykin). Tom is the older, wiser killer who takes young,
over-eager Jerry under his wing. He coaches Jerry on how to close the deal when selling
cars and how to dress while on a hit, giving him practical advice along the way ("Never
point a muzzle at a loved one."). The gang at Kovachy Motors is rounded out
by Vic (Charles Durning), a legendary hit man about whom Tom nudges Jerry, saying,
"two words: 'grassy knoll'."
Soon,
Jerry and Tom are a team: selling cars and bumping people off. But as young Jerry
refines his skills, Tom starts to get worried. His protégé is beginning
to like his work a little too much, and has yet to grasp the essential lessons of
the profession: everyone's a mark, and it's nothing personal.
Rick Cleveland wrote the original play and subsequent screenplay for Jerry and Tom,
and there's still a stagey feel to the movie: it isn't just the long takes and room
given to dialogue, but also the remarkable transitions from scene to scene. The camera
seemingly pans out of one set and into the next: a used car office shifts to a snowy
street scene in one smooth move.
It's veteran actor Saul Rubinek's first stab at directing. Rubinek's a familiar face
from countless character actor roles in movies and TV over the last 20 years. He
was the western penny-novel writer in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, the caustic lawyer
in Brian DePalma's Bonfire of the Vanities, the sleazy film producer in Tony Scott's
True Romance - he's been on The King of Kensington and Star Trek...hell, he was even
on Frasier last week.
So after all this time, Rubinek decides to make a movie. I guess one wonders, why
this one? The Chicago setting; grouping together actors like Joe Mantegna, William
Macy, and Mike Nussbaum; the clipped dialogue - this all feels like David Mamet territory
(for a while I thought he was the guy under the hood), well-defined and staked out.
Many scenes work well - the laughs are broad, the deadpan heavy, and the cameo performances
(which include Peter Riegert and Ted Danson) are a kick. Sam Rockwell is compelling
as the young hitman, and Mantegna and Macy are so confident and relaxed on screen,
I could watch them read the phone book.
The tone of the movie is erratic, though. What does it want to be? Black comedy shifts
to poignancy shifts to brutal murder in a slapped-on, haphazard manner. These shifts
make it an unpleasant little film, and the viewer quickly starts to mistrust the
director's choices. Over-reliance on a few devices makes the film tiresome: the scene
transitions become gimmicky, and the characters don't progress beyond being quirky,
undeveloped sketches.
An interesting movie, but with so many worthy scenes and some lovely dialogue, it's
a shame Jerry and Tom doesn't hold together better.
Jerry and Tom plays at Cinéma du Parc until February 25
- Neil Brouillet