`The Whole Nine Yards' – Comedy about Hitman Sometimes Hits and Sometimes Misses by Homer Yen (c) 2000
Before plunking down your hard-earned money to see this film, ask yourself this one question. Can you visualize a movie that stars tough-guy Bruce Willis alongside Friends funny-guy Matthew Perry? Willis has played countless tough guys before. So, this isn't new territory for him. Perry, however, usually is the equivalent of the touch of death when he is part of any movie project. His deer-in-the-headlights comedic style, works well on his TV show but doesn't seem to translate well onto the big screen.
In `The Whole Nine Yards,' the running theme is about people that want to kill other people. Matthew Perry plays Oz, a nicer-than-nice Dentist who is openly despised by his wife, Sophie (Rosanna Arquette). She wishes that Oz would die, and is secretly in the process of trying to hire a hitman for the job. Oz tells of his marital woes to his dental assistant, Jill (Amanda Peet). She is appalled by his current situation and tells him that he'd `be doing the world a favor if he had her whacked.' To make Oz's life even more complicated, the new neighbor next door turns out to be famed hitman-in-hiding, Jimmy `The Tulip' Tudeski (Willis). Though Oz is terrified with this fact, it's hard to turn down an invitation from him to go for a drive. `Relax, it won't kill you,' says Tudeski with his tongue firmly in cheek. `The Tulip' imparts his philosophies about life, making Oz completely uneasy. `We'll all die sometime' and `what's important is how I get along with the people who are still alive.'
Oddly, Jimmy is only the first hitman that he'll meet over the course of the week. Oz eventually runs into Frank Figs (Michael Duncan Clarke), a really large enforcer for Hungarian crime boss Janni Gogolak (Kevin Pollak). Gogolak has put a price on Tudeski's head.
Poor Oz. He has to find a way to keep all of the ones that he cares for alive while saving himself. And this can become quite difficult because one of the women that he meets along the way and falls in love with happens to be Jimmy's wife (Natasha Henstridge). When Oz confesses to Jimmy that he's fallen in love with her, he laments `Oh my God, I've upset a mass murderer.'
Happily, there's a hint of general glee among the cast members, who seem to be enjoying what they are doing. This would explain the purposefully over-the-top acting in some sequences and the incomprehensible accents in others. Actors get at least one scene to ham it up, and when the spotlight is on them, they take full advantage of their opportunity. Kevin Pollak gets his moment as the Hungarian crime boss who doesn't quite have a good enough command of the English language. Rosanna Arquette gets her moment when she seduces hitmen as part of her contract negotiation strategy. But the real bright spot for me, however, was Amanda Peet who played Jill the dental assistant. She turns out to be a Tudeski groupie who aspires to become a bona fide contract killer. She brings a natural vibrancy to her role that makes her infectiously funny and a delight to watch. Enjoying this film really depends on two things: having the patience to allow some of the movie's momentum to generate and accepting its tongue-in-cheek spirit. Some of it worked for me. Some didn't.
Grade: C+
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