THE JANUARY MAN
A film review by Cloyd Goodrum
Copyright 1989 Cloyd Goodrum
I saw THE JANUARY MAN Friday night before I read any reviews. USA TODAY gave it one star out of four, and during the weekend I saw Gene & Roger & Rex & Dixie all panned it. All these critics had some valid points. It does have more subplots than it can support. At times it can get pretty incredible, especially the last twenty minutes, which reminded me of the Keystone Cops.
But it is not a horrible film. I didn't leave the theatre wishing I'd stayed home and watched TV. A lot of this movie is really interesting. In the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie we learn the following:
(a) There is a serial killer loose
(b) The brother (Kevin Cline) of the police commissioner (Harvey Keitel)
is the best man to catch him.
(c) But the Kevin Cline character had to leave the police department
under a cloud, so his brother has to ask him back.
(d) We learn that the police commissioner's brother was one the
commissioner's wife's lover and is still in love with her.
That's what we know at the beginning of the movie. Unfortunately, that's about all we know at the end of the movie. None of the subplots are developed. To make matters worse, other subplots are introduced. There is another romance. A profile is developed of the killer that makes him look like a cross between the rain man and Ted Bundy. All interesting stuff, but the trouble is the makers of this film just use it to tease the audience instead of resolving anything.
I certainly understand why some people call this a bad movie. But I think it might be more accurate to say that it is a good movie that nobody got around to finishing. A lot of the problems with it could have been with a small amount of rewriting and adding half an hour to forty-five minutes worth of footage to explain things. Which leads me to a theory I have. I have the feeling that somebody high up said that this movie had to be out by January, as kind of a gimmick to draw attention to it, and folks on the creative end were forced to release a substandard product. That might not be the real explanation, but I do get the feeling that this was a rush job.
I'd give this movie two and a half stars out of four for good acting and some good ideas. If you want to see a movie that tries to do the same things this movie does and succeeds, go rent FIVE CORNERS, a marvelous little sleeper that was scripted by John Patrick Shanley, the screenwriter for this movie (and for MOONSTRUCK).
Cloyd Goodrum III
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