The Quickie

THE QUICKIE (1 outta 5 stars)

Pretty poor movie... an old-as-the-hills story about a high-ranking gangster who wants to quit, passing on his empire to his inept son. Of course, it's not going to be easy for someone in that line or work to just quit... so a contract is put out on his life. After throwing a big party an exterminator (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I guess is *never* going to act in anything other than TV movies or low budget direct-to-video trash ever again) is called to the scene. Our "hero" makes a pass at her... offering her big money for a "quickie"... she turns down his offer, even though she needs the money... but winds up staying overnight anyway... even after being brutally harassed by the overzealous son who thinks she was sent to kill his father. Ugh. The story just goes on and on... you can see every "twist" and "turn" coming a mile away. Weird soundtrack by some group called "The Tiger Lillies" will drive most people nuts... but I thought there was one kind of cool track towards the end. Or maybe I was just excited because I could tell that the movie was almost over? Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer... what the hell happened to you?

After only a few minutes, I could measure the influence that THE GODFATHER had on this mobster family drama topic. It is not bad and rather unusual to show Russian mobster in the US without too many clichés. The director and male lead are Russians and that helps of course to make it believable. Jennifer Jason Leigh brings her share to this crime drama flick; maybe more drama than crime though.

I saw this movie on the movie channel and unfortunately missed the first few minutes of the film but found the rest of it intriguing. None of it made any sense, of course but I found myself unable to turn it off. The whole thing had a dreamlike quality to me. What the heck was the bug lady doing in this film, anyway? Was the lead guy a mob boss or a tap dancer turned to crime in order to make a living?

In spite of the shortcomings, I really liked the soundtrack. Especially haunting were the songs by the Tiger Lillies.

My advice is to forget the movie and buy the soundtrack (if you can find it anywhere - which I have not been able to do).

Once again I am a little confused by the websites 'plot outline' and many of the other comments.

This film seemed to me to be very little about the relationship between mother and son (only one important scene where the mob boss reproached his mother for being a drunk all his life), and more about a great number of other things. Sibling rivalry, the decadence that accompanies a criminal life, how life and money ultimately become of little value, how love can surface in the most unlikely circumstance, etc etc. The 'hitman' who was exceptionally good at the job and the mob boss fell for the exterminator in spite of himself. The irony of his brother 'sussing' what someone was up to and being over-ridden was not lost on him.

I thought it was a well made depiction of a dysfunctional family and its final disintegration. The storyline flowed, there was great attention to detail - a bug exterminator would be looking in all the rooms and a nervous mob member would get itchy about it - and though it wasn't a Hollywood glitz-flick I thought it was all the more authentic because of it. I really enjoyed it.

This movie came very close to being a good flick. The direction needs to be a bit smoother to progress from one piece to the next to make it more plausible. In particular: The main character's need to escape is not explicit enough. Is he trying to kill himself? Is he trying to escape? His life does not seem to be that bad, so it makes it more difficult to swallow that he wants to leave his life so much. Also, it is not very clear how much "in love" he has fallen with Jennifer Jason L. If the movie was reworked with some more attention to these details, it would have been Great. On the other hand, for an indy flick, it's pretty good! Maybe if you have a couple of drinks, to dull the logical thinking, it would be more fun...