Mike's Murder

For some inexplicable reason, critics find this film hard to follow. Actually, it's very coherent and surprisingly powerful. Debra Winger plays a bank employee who falls for her tennis coach, a young stud named Mike. When Mike is brutally murdered by drug dealers, Winger's character, Betty, is drawn into the L.A. underworld in her quest to find out why he was killed. What makes this film so great is its quiet realism. Most latter day noirs suffer from over-the-top plotting, mega-violence, and cartoonish effects. Moving by indirection and inference, MIKE'S MURDER skirts a hellish world rather than diving in, a narrative strategy that makes it eerily believable and deeply disturbing. Check it out.

Last night, Debra Winger spoke about this film at UCLA. The campus theatre that shows films to the general public was renamed the James Bridges Theatre in honor of the writer and director of Mike's Murder. Debra said that Bridges was an actor's director. The scene in the film where Debra's character checks her phone messages and we hear a voice say it's mom-that was Debra's real life mother Ruth-Debra didn't know she would hear that voice until the moment the scene was shot!

That example really highlights the strength of the film, the acting. All of the performances are first-rate. I was touched by Debra's quiet strength in the face of some sad and even bizarre discoveries by her character about her dead lover. A very underrated film!

Debra Winger in one word in this movie: WOW! She looks amazing. 80s hair and that beautiful smile make this worth watching in itself. The story is a good one (a drug dealing "boyfriend" that the bad guys kill and Betty getting dragged into the whole mess) and the acting is well-done (wait till you see Paul Winfield!). Decent mid-80s-type soundtrack with those kinds of tunes you heard once and forgot. And Debra Winger looking great! If you can't catch it on the cable movie channels, rent it. An inexpensive flash-back with no side effects.

The story of Mike's Murder might go under the heading of things better left undiscovered. Except of course by the police. But all Debra Winger knows is that the fabulous sex she had with her tennis instructor Mark Keyloun has left one big void and one big curiosity.

Debra Winger gives lie to that notion that there are no good roles for women as she carries Mike's Murder on the back of her obsessed character. Winger is no superhero, she's an average ordinary working class female, a bank teller who thinks that she's found the love of her life and can't believe it was taken from her.

Keyloun just can't make ends meet and pay the rent so he's into other activities some of them not so legal. He and his friend Darrell Larson started poaching on another drug dealer's territory and that kind of poaching can be bad for your health.

Winger finds a lot more about Keyloun and the best scene in the film is with Paul Winfield, a rich older gay man who picked up Keyloun and keeps him for a while as his boy toy. As Winfield describes the relationship Winger's eyes and expressions are worth pages of dialog.

There is also a frightening climax with Larson that I can't reveal the details of but it will rivet you.

Mike's Murder is a great film and real triumph for Debra Winger.

My experience with this film differs from some of those who seem to be objecting to both the plot and the cast.

I thought the idea of a 20's something woman who immerses herself in a quasi-relationship with a person on the fringe of society to be interesting. Winger turns in a terrific performance. Part of the human experience or journey is that one encounters difficult moments in one's life - including anticipating relationships one wants desperately to work out.

Betty is in the unfortunate position of having to view Mike from afar as the latter is caught in a nightmarish world of drugs and deceit. I found Mike's drug partner in crime very compelling. One had a real sense of dread and doom as he tried to "make-up" for an irredeemable mistake. Paul Winfield is spot on as the record producer who has also suffered a loss.

All in all, what we have here is a subtle film which is compelling and which a typical focus group would probably pass over. One good example of why film producers and directors should stay away from them and let their artistic visions guide their actions.