TAXMAN, THE (director/writer: Avi Nesher; screenwriter: Roger Berger; cinematographer: Jim Denault; editor: Alex Hall; cast: Joe Pantoliano (Al Benjamin), Wade Dominguez (Joseph Romero), Elizabeth Berkley (Nadia Rubakov), Michael Chiklis (Andre Rubakov), Robert Townsend (Peyton Cody), Casey Siemaszko (Abrasha Topolev), 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Taxman is a wonderfully played cynical, offbeat, low-key thriller with comic undertones, also exhibiting plenty of local atmosphere and human intensity. It is about a mysterious moneyman in the Russian community of Brighton Beach who is skimming tax money from his gas station operations thereby defrauding New York State of millions of dollars in tax money, and it is also about two unlikely pursuers of this scam, who are scorned low-level workers who get involved with Mafia-type Russian mobsters, getting into a scenario that is way above their inept heads. They are a self-righteous New York State tax investigator Al Benjamin (Joe Pantoliano) and an artless rookie Puerto Rican policeman Joseph Romero (Wade Dominguez), whose main asset to the department in Brighton Beach is that he speaks Russian.
The Israeli-born Avi Nesher co-wrote the screenplay with Roger Berger, who did the real-live tax investigation of this actual case. Nesher directed the film with a flare for making a caper film come to life. The film looks closely at the two obsessive and forlorn workers, who go against the grain of both their bureaucratic department's archetypes, in the sense that they care about people and are willing to do more than what their job calls for. The Taxman is an attempt at remaking that dreaded occupation's negative image, that has been maligned ever since Biblical times, as he becomes someone who tries to do good, but is so blinded by gaining personal glory and not compromising, that he ends up hurting those he is helping, anyway.
The two would-be sleuths meet accidently at the crime scene of a Russian Mafia rub out of six employees of a small but growing gas station company called M.A.R.S., that the taxman is suspicious of, as he has been investigating them for months without his bosses approval, trying to figure out how they are running a tax scam. Unfortunately, no one else cares.
Benjamin and Joseph are poorly thought of by their bosses. They both can't help it, they have personalities that rub people the wrong way, even if they don't mean to be annoying and are supposedly intelligent, they are still kept at the bottom-level of their jobs. Benjamin's boss considers his persistence uncalled for even though he is a veteran investigator who is dedicated, and the rookie Romero, is asked to do the details in the department no one else wants, like guarding dead bodies to prevent their personal belongings from being stolen at a crime scene or he is used as the police's errand boy to get coffee. He got high marks at the Police Academy in the academics, but did poorly on the gun range and can't drive a car well.
The fun in the movie is to see these two diverse outcasts get together and form an iron-clad Abbott and Costello-like partnership and stumble along on a case that no one else wants to touch with a ten-foot pole. They make headway by starting at the bottom of the chain of mobsters and doggedly get to meet the shakers in the crime world of the exotic Russian community, as they eventually find links with the Russian mobsters and a major American oil company.
The first helpful figure they meet is the Russian emigre Andre Rubakov (Michal Chiklis), who owns 16 gas stations and is a good boss to work for, as he takes good care of his workers in a paternal way. He is also a family man, who has a beautiful and spirited daughter, Nadia (Elizabeth Berkley). Andre refuses to sell his gas stations to the mobster operated M.A.R.S. company, that is tied in with the so-called cabbage: the Russian Big whose silent partner is a big American oil company. He simply works his own scam by just not paying the authorities the taxes he owes. As a result of him not selling his stations, he is gunned down at a Russian bathhouse, but survives. His more fatal outcome comes when he can't stop the taxman from following him around to a family outing in a skating rink, arousing the suspicion of the Russian gang.
A reluctant prosecutor in the U.S. district court, Peyton Cody (Robert Townsend), decides to take the case presented to him by the two sleuths, which was turned down by every other prosecutor and the bosses in their own departments. He ascertains that the case could make newspaper headlines, which is good for his career, as it involves a big oil company and he feels these two might have come up with something if they can get Andre to reveal who the "cabbage" is.
The film had many different mood swings -- ranging from the joyous Russian wedding reception for Nadia the two sleuths attended, their frustrating conversations about the ups-and-downs of the case, and the action-packed mob hit by the two suicidal Chechnyan hit men of the likable gas station owner, and the chase of one of the hit men through the off-season beachfront property of Coney Island.
In the end, these two did all they could to get justice, and the results were mixed, but better than what could be expected. The taxman's reason for putting his life and career in jeopardy, is stated in his response to the cabbage man who tries unsuccessfully to bribe him: "The truth is, that people like you piss me off."
The film had many endearing qualities: The cast was magnificent; the novice cop was an unforgettable character; the taxman was even more unforgettable; Elizabeth Berkley is a beautiful sight for sore eyes and her Russian accent was as good as pate from Zabars; and, the story, though thoroughly routine, was presented with a certain grittiness that elevated it to the level of those el trains running above the Brighton Beach Russian community.
REVIEWED ON 5/13/2000 GRADE: B+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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