THE BIG SQUEEZE
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1997 Chuck Dowling
The Big Squeeze (1996) **1/2 out of ***** - Cast: Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter Dobson. Writer and Director: Marcus DeLeon.
Lara Flynn Boyle has always struck me as an odd actress. Not odd as in she's weird, but odd in her choices of characters. In interviews she has always come across as someone you'd want to hold in your arms and protect her from everything evil in this world. But ever since the second (and final) season of TV's "Twin Peaks", she's mostly played cold, ruthless, and sometimes downright evil women. Almost to the point where she'd be typecast in that type of role. So when a movie like "The Big Squeeze" comes around, no matter how her character is presented, you think she has some sort of ulterior motive.
As the film begins, Benny (Peter Dobson from "The Frighteners") is being thrown out of a moving train for having five kings in his hand during a poker game. He goes to a local bar where Tanya (Boyle) is bartending. He tries to pick her up, but finds out she's a married woman. So he tries another bartender and the two strike up a relationship.
Tanya's husband is a former minor league baseball player named Henry. Two years earlier he injured his knee in an accident and hasn't played the game since. Also since the accident, Henry has found God and visits the local mission every day, mostly to pray for himself to be able to play ball again, but also to pray for forgiveness after he has sex with his wife. He's an odd guy.
Tanya took the bartending job because Henry's insurance would not pay for his injury. One day she opens his mail and discovers that he did in fact receive a settlement of over $100,000. Now she thinks that she's entitled to half of the money. And she's right. Henry, however, believes that money is evil and will not let her have a dime. They fight, and she leaves him.
Now the plot happens. Tanya wants her half of the money, so she asks for Benny's help. At the same time, the mission which Henry visits daily desperately needs over $100,000 to repair earthquake damage. Benny then concocts a scheme involving the mission's plight to raise money in order to swindle Henry.
"The Big Squeeze" is pleasant enough, it just doesn't pay off well in the end. The tone set early on makes it seem as though some sort of double cross may occur (aside from the OBVIOUS double cross which we all know is coming), but nothing else really happens. Dobson gives an interesting performance, and it looks like he might be a mainstay, along with Ms. Boyle, in this type of low-budget independent film in the years to come.
-- Chuck Dowling Visit Chuck's Movie Reviews at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Over 1,600 movies rated and/or reviewed! Movie news, box office reports, film related links, and reader's polls and reviews.
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