HIT ME
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Castle Hill Director: Steven Shainberg Writer: Denis Johnson Cast: Elias Koteas, Bruce Ramsey, Phillip Baker Hall, Laure Marsac, William H. Macy, Kevin J. O'Connor, Haing S. Ngor
The second movie to come out this month which uses the game of poker as a metaphor for con games, "Hit Me" features a performer who possesses anything but a poker face. His expressions and body language reflect his feelings so robustly that if he indulged in the game he'd be wiped out in four hands. What is so obviously a handicap in cards is no hindrance to the story. In a hotel bellhop's role, Elias Koteas's portrayal of the hapless Sonny may be stagey but is appropriate, even invaluable, for realizing director Steven Shainberg's intention. Shainberg, in his debut as a director, wants to portray nothing less than the turbulent emotions of every American worker who is frustrated by the confines of dead-end job. For both humorous effect and unsubtle sketching of inner anger, he exploits the talents of Mr. Koteas, known hitherto to a discerning audience for his work in Atom Egoyan's movie "Exotica" and to less perspicacious fans who enjoyed his farcical machinations in Steve Barron's murky "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." In "Hit Me," Mr. Koteas effectively combines the poignancy of a man ready to grasp at any straw to make a better life and the whimsy of a Chaplinesque character caught up in the modern-times scheme that's way over his limits.
Scripter Denis Johnson's comic drama of romance and double-dealing takes us inside a decently-appointed by fraying Tacoma, Washington hotel which has just been demoted to a two-star establishment. Bellhop Sonny (Koteas) may look to any patron the typical uniformed servant who wheels the room-service cart robot-like on his appointed rounds. We in the movie audienc know better. The guests may see him only as he politely delivers the goods but we watch outside the door, as he gesticulates wildly to no one in particular in emulation of the activities inside one room, screwing up his face in disgust and mouthing curses at his exploitative employer at the next station. On one of his rounds, he is plunged into an adventure which he intially greets with mixed delight, but one which will immerse him even further into the despair of a man who sees his home life as even more discouraging than his job: Sonny takes care of a mentally retarded, 450-pound brother Leroy (Jay Leggett). When an attractive hotel guest, Monique (Laure Marsac), slashes her wrists while Sonny is still in her room, he saves her life. But seemingly betrayed by the Montreal-born woman of his dreams soon thereafter, he agrees to take part with his friend Del (Bruce Ramsay) in a bold theft of $500,000 left by some big-league poker players in the hotel safes.
Director Shainberg shifts his focus regularly from hotel to hovel, effectively portraying the despair that has allowed Sonny to risk all in a reckless plan which would allow him to reinvent his life. What Sonny did not count on was the way the best-laid plans are often trumped by life and how unprepared he is in his confrontations with Lenny Ish (Philip Baker Hall), a high-roller in the approaching card game with a decidedly philosophic approach to life. Hall, who is traditionally cast in the role of mentor to callow young men who are down on their luck, is both amusing and convincing as a cool hoodlum whose ruthlessness belies his composed attitude. He who cunningly portrays a man whose conservative beliefs conform to the view that social classes are rigid. As a fellow who is so comfortable with himself that even his bleakest pronouncements come out as avuncular advice, he embodies the cynical view that most people are vain dreamers, bound to stay forever in their current social and economic levels.
In its noir cynicism, "Hit Me" is the diametrical opposite of saccharine films like "Simon Birch." Shainberg and Johnson's God does not endow humble people with the competence to save the world. His unassuming people will continue as meek individuals while audacious human beings will proceed to exploit the long-suffering. In his bellhop's embodiment, Elias Koteas gets the message: accept the world and embrace whatever beauty you can in your own echelon. "Hit Me" delivers mounting tension, combining action scenes with trenchant episodes, adding up to captivating cinema.
Rated R. Running time: 128 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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