THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: beginning 1/96 (limited) Running Length: 1:57 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, violence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Andy Garcia, Treat Williams, William Forsythe, Christopher Lloyd, Bill Nunn, Christopher Walken, Gabrielle Anwar, Steve Buscemi, Jack Warden Director: Gary Fleder Producer: Cary Woods Screenplay: Scott Rosenberg Cinematography: Elliot Davis Music: Michael Convertino U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Owing more than just a nod to Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS, Gary Fleder's THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD tries to tell the same sort of hip tale about sympathetic gangsters whose crime goes horribly wrong. A lot is missing however -- the snappy, polished dialogue; the tense, gritty atmosphere; and the nearly-perfect pacing. THINGS TO DO is a wannabe that never quite makes it. That's not to say it's all bad, however.
The film introduces us to Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia), a slick ex-gangster with style, class, and some great pickup lines. For a while, Jimmy has been on the right side of the law, running a business called Afterlife Advice, in which dying men and women record words of wisdom for their heirs. The debts are mounting, however, and Jimmy is in desperate need of cash. So, when a shady, quadriplegic crime boss, The Man With the Plan (Christopher Walken), comes to him with an offer he can't refuse, Jimmy listens.
The Man With the Plan has a son, Bernard, who desperately needs to get back together with his ex-girlfriend. To facilitate this, Jimmy is commissioned to put a scare into the girl's intended fiancee. The fee is $50,000 and Jimmy can bring in as many men as he wants. So, armed with the promise of easy money, he rounds up his old crew -- guys with absurd names like Franchise (William Forsythe), Pieces (Christopher Walken), Critical Bill (Treat Williams), and Easy Win (Bill Nunn). Things don't proceed smoothly, however. A couple of well-placed insults from the intended victim cause Critical Bill to go ballistic, and Jimmy is soon faced with the unpleasant prospect of disposing of two bodies, then explaining his failure to The Man With the Plan.
The first half of THINGS TO DO is an unoriginal-but-entertaining tale of gangster-types botching a crime. Many of the settings will be familiar to followers of film noir, and much of the self-consciously cool dialogue is derivative of, albeit inferior to, Tarantino's. After the movie's midpoint, however, things go in the wrong direction. The poorly-paced second hour features a lot of aimless running around and talking punctuated by bursts of bloody action that don't signify much. Most of the characters who get axed haven't been fleshed out enough to capture our sympathy, so it's easy to shrug off their deaths as a waste of screen time. The only one we care about is Jimmy, and his motives and intentions become increasingly murky as THINGS TO DO moves towards its predictable conclusion.
Andy Garcia turns in one of his best performances in years, infusing Jimmy with an unexpected dose of humanity. Garcia has a number of deftly-acted scenes, the best of which center on his evolving romance with Gabrielle Anwar's Dagney, an innocent girl caught up in Jimmy's mess. Treat Williams is wildly energetic as Bill, a nutcase with an itchy trigger finger. Williams chews on the scenery a little, delivering lines like "I'm Godzilla and you're Japan!" with suitable gusto. Bill Nunn, William Forsythe, and Chistopher Lloyd do adequate jobs playing the misfits who round out Jimmy's crew. Christopher Walken is his usual creepy self as The Man With the Plan.
As is true of his BEAUTIFUL GIRLS script, Scott Rosenberg's screenplay is largely a pastiche of themes and ideas from other, better pictures. This movie has been assembled with enough aptitude to offer two hours' tepid entertainment, but it's not nearly as clever as the title suggests. A few too many characters and scenes in THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD lack life and luster, making Fleder's film more of a pretender than a contender in a field that includes superior entries like RESERVOIR DOGS and THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net, jberardinell@delphi.com web: http://www2.cybernex.net/~berardin
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