LAYIN' LOW (director/writer: Danny Leiner; cinematographer: Jim Denault; editor: Michele Botticelli; cast: Jeremy Piven (Jerry Muckler), Louise Lasser (Mrs. Muckler), Edie Falco (Angie) Frank John Hughes (Christy), Alanna Ubach (Manuela), Nick Kepros (George), Pat McNamara (Mr. Muckler), Paul Sand (Augie), Paul Schulze (Patty); Runtime: 96; 1996)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
"Layin' Low" is a charming comedy set in the Brooklyn of the 1980s and laden with plenty of colorful city types. Jerry (Piven) is an unemployed twentysomething, living in his eccentric parent's Carroll Gardens brownstone. He sleeps late and reads a lot while aspiring to be a writer, but doesn't really know what to do in life, except he's going bonkers and tells his best friend Christy (Hughes), that he needs to get out of the house and get a place on his own. Christy is a born loser, hanging around the OTB, pretending to be a winner. He resides on the roof, where he invents a gizmo to catch pigeons, hoping to sell the meat to Chinese restaurants.
When a friend (Schulze) of Jerry's asks him to help him move out of his girlfriend's house, he obliges. The friend stops off at his local drug dealer to score some grass, but while there two hit men rub out the drug dealer while Jerry's friend steals the drug cache, but he is shot and before Jerry can get him to the hospital, he dies. Jerry now has the drugs, and is on the run from the cops and the gangsters.
Jerry confides in Christy about what went down and Christy offers to make arrangements with the gangsters to get the drugs back. Christy gets sidetracked from that duty, when he spots Jerry's new boarder, an attractive single coed from Spain, Manuela (Alanna). Instead of meeting the gangsters in front of the OTB as arranged, he takes Manuela on a tour of the neighborhood, treating her to Good Humor ice cream and pizza, giving her enough junk-food until she pukes.
Jerry, fearful of staying in his house, has Christy arrange for him to stay with his cousin Angie (Edie). After some hostility is shown against Jerry by Angie, because she catches Christy in a lie about why Jerry is here, the two strike up a romance. Edie is, of all things, a philosophy professor at Hunter College, which brings about a funny scene, as Jerry sneaks into her class and she's teaching Kant with a sharp Brooklyn accent.
The film ends in tragedy, but somehow the film never draws us into that emotional-caring response. All the scenes were played for comedy and a study of Jerry's career dilemma -- as he is someone who is beguilingly meant to be born, bred, and dead in Brooklyn.
The ensemble cast does a nice job in sketching city life for a bunch of idlers. It is pure Brooklynese in attitude and atmosphere, depicting life that revolves around dreams of hitting the Exacta, scoring in drugs, getting a job, hanging out in a Greek diner, and playing stickball in the street. It's a sweet, little mellow story, with a lot of laughs in it, and with some violent scenes which never seemed real, more like play-acting. There was good chemistry among the stars, especially the relationship Jerry has with both Christy and Angie.
REVIEWED ON 8/1/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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