THE BIG SQUEEZE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter Dobson, Danny Nucci, Luca Bercovici, Teresa Dispina. Screenplay: Marcus DeLeon. Director: Marcus DeLeon. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
For all the talk about how safe and predictable Hollywood film-making has become in recent years (and well-deserved talk it has been), I think the independents have been getting a bit lazy as well. The big studios may try to duplicate the formulas of their blockbusters, but the small distributors are just as eager to duplicate the successes within their own ranks, which is why you see a lot of two kinds of film at your local art house: talky generational relationship comedies, and gritty, violent capers. Many cinephiles find the former particularly annoying, but I have grown more tired of the attitude-heavy but substance-light films which worship at the altar of Tarantino and turn out sour garbage like THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD. THE BIG SQUEEZE is a nice idea for a spin on that trend, an unspectacular but surprisingly sunny film noir -- a film blanc, if you will.
Set in Los Angeles' low-rent Highland Park neighborhood, THE BIG SQUEEZE is the story of Tanya Mulhill (Lara Flynn Boyle), a bartender forced to work long hours to support her husband Henry (Luca Bercovici), a former minor league baseball star crippled by a knee injury a few years earlier. Tanya is content to watch her tips go to the local mission where Henry prays for a miracle to restore his knee, until she learns that Henry has been hiding away a $130,000 insurance settlement. When Henry refuses to share the wealth, Tanya asks for help from Benny O'Malley (Peter Dobson), a con man who has been frequenting the bar. Together they hatch a plan to separate Henry from his money, employing Jesse (Danny Nucci), a bar regular with a crush on Tanya, as well as a few well-planted magnolia trees and the promise of a miracle.
I suppose that on a basic plot level not much separates THE BIG SQUEEZE from those same gritty, violent capers I criticized en masse. It includes sex, greed, double-crosses and characters with a certain in-your-face quirkiness, and all have an uncomfortable familiarity. What director and writer Marcus DeLeon understands is that a change in tone can make for an entirely different story, and THE BIG SQUEEZE is a film which always seems to be more inviting than ominous -- Jacques Haitkin's cinematography is bright and cheery most of the time, Mark Mothersbaugh provides a bouncy score, and the characters are generally likeable. DeLeon takes the substance of a dark crime drama, paints it and throws up some curtains, and suddenly finds himself with a comedy on his hands.
That little trick impressed me, and it is characteristic of the minor pleasures which allow THE BIG SQUEEZE to overcome its familiar story arc and deliberate pacing. Peter Dobson's Benny is shown from the beginning as a con artist whose efforts have a tendency to backfire, making his the cocky demeanor of a losing gambler convinced that his luck is just about to change. Henry is also an intriguing character, a man whose pose at piety masks a profound selfishness and self-obsession; it is a great gag when Henry believes he is making an amazing contribution to the Church by parting with his California League championship ring. Part of what makes THE BIG SQUEEZE fun to watch is that Benny's plan is based on completely mistaken assumptions about the other people involved -- neither Tanya nor Jesse is as obsessed with the money as he is, and Henry may actually be _more_ obsessed with it.
I wish DeLeon had been content with a silly subversion of noir conventions, because his attempts at more thematic depth fall somewhat flat. That is partly the result of a listless performance by Lara Flynn Boyle, who gives Tanya a flaccid personality which doesn't seem to warrant so much fascination by so many men. Tanya's realization of what she wants from life is one of several sub-texts in THE BIG SQUEEZE which are lost in the shuffle, and there is a somewhat disconcerting cynicism to DeLeon's rationalization of the opportunistic exploitation of religious faith. But for all its unevenness, THE BIG SQUEEZE provides an unexpected twist to a genre in which guns and gloom generally carry the day. In this case, it is a pleasant surprise to find not a single bullet fired, and every character experiencing some kind of happy ending. Apparently DeLeon prefers to make love, not noir.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 anti-noir movements: 6.
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