Whole Nine Yards
In some ways, this could be looked at as a retread of Ruthless People, but with fewer laughs. However, it does more than make up for that in charm with a game cast and good direction from veteran journeyman Jonathan Lynn. Like Ruthless, the story features mostly detestable characters each with their own agenda whose best-laid plans converge with varying results. Matthew Perry of Friends gets the nebbish role here, and heâs not bad at it, playing a hapless dentist with a boorish wife (Rosanna Arquette, still cute after all these years), who realizes that his new next door neighbor in the (Canadian) suburbs that just moved in is a recently paroled hitman hiding out under a new identity from the mob bosses who want him dead for ratting them out. As the hitman, Bruce Willis coasts along here more on charisma and his own persona than in perhaps any other role he has taken, but thatâs fine, since Bruce in cruise control is still far more entertaining than many âseriousâ actors who huff and puff their way through a complex performance. The early scenes feature more than their fair share of âThe French are assholesâ jokes, and Arquetteâs overdone thick accent only accentuates this message. The plot gets rolling when Arquette convinces Perry to fly back to Chicago to tell the mob bosses about Willisâ whereabouts, in the hope that theyâll get a âfinderâs feeâ that could pay off their debts. Again, much of this material would be downright banal if it werenât for the charm and good cheer the actors bring, from not only the leads but also Natasha Henstridge as Willisâ estranged wife, Michael Clarke Duncan as a rival hitman, and Amanda Peet (with beautiful eyes and doing nudity to boot) as Perryâs overenthusiastic assistant (and best friend) who has a secret of her own. Only Kevin Pollak as the mob boss who wants Willis dead drops the ball with his performance, with an annoying and distracting accent that comes and goes, and mostly sounds normal except for emphasis on certain letters. The pacing, script, and plot twists are actually very good for the most part, even if the story isnât that funny overall, but in the end screenwriter Mitchell Kapner winds up writing himself into a corner simply because of the obvious plot device that all Willis really needs to do to solve his problems would be to simply kill Perry, but he wonât because he âlikesâ him, as much of the tension hinges on whether heâll actually do the deed, even as Perry becomes more and more paranoid. In addition, the viewer canât help but wonder as the film ends, if thereâs any way that the Perry character is NOT gonna be screwed once the authorities put the pieces together, even as weâre shown the obligatory happy ending. In the end, a fun, watchable comedy, but certainly not a classicâŚ
7/10