Taxman

This is a small little gem of a movie. It has a good script, great acting, and deals with an important subject: the influx of Russian organized crime into the US. It is all the more interesting because the protagonist is not a flashy A-list actor, and his character is just a tax inspector with a mortgage and alimony payments. In this respect, it is much more realistic than typical Hollywood cops & robbers b*******t. This film had several very touching moments, made more poignant by the fact that the main character is a regular working stiff.

Joe Pantaliano, Wade Dominguez, and Robert Townsend make for a most interesting crimestopping team. This is a blue collar, unglamorous tale. Pantaliano's character is no superhero: he's a tax investigator and a family man (Great line: "I'm not interested in sex. I'm married.") with a rough-hewn manner and an unpleasant disposition. Dominguez is a great balance who goes along with Pantiliano for the ride as he does in life. The film is dedicated to his memory so he died very young. Townsend is perfect as the ambitious D. A. who finally agrees to take the case. Michael Chiklis (The Commish) nearly steals the film as a sympathetic Russian businessman being hunted by Russian mafia hit men. He is terrific in all of his scenes and teaches the boys about Russian life in Brighton Beach.

I originally saw "The Taxman" because I enjoy watching Elizabeth Berkley. Her portrayal of Nadia is her finest work to date. I doubt that it will silence the many critics of this young woman but it does show very well what she is a very capable actress. But beyond the performance of Elizabeth, the film is also very well done. Michael Chiklis is excellent as Nadia's father- a sort of Russian mafia kindly godfather character. But perhaps what really makes the film is the apparently accurate depiction of a tax fraud investigation. A movie about tax fraud investigation is rather unique to begin with and would strike many as rather boring. But a crime related movie that avoids all the usual cliches of mindless violence and fast cars and women is even more rare these days. Yet "The Taxman" manages to both avoid being routine and to be engrossing as well. By the way, I loved Elizabeth's sexy Russian accent.

He's not Hollywood handsome and can't dance. He has more tenacity than brains and is more impulsive than courageous. He has a tendency to act first, think later, and screw up. He will apologize, but only if it's really necessary and not everything works out in the end for him. Such is the central character in "The Taxman" (Pantoliano), an okay cops vs crime flick with the twist being the hero is a federal tax investigator who stumbles into a mafia-style operation and has almost as much trouble with the system as he has with the hoodlums. "The Taxman" is an earnest effort and a worthwhile watch for those who are looking for a down-to-earth crime flick.

I caught this on HBO while channel surfing and was almost immediately pulled into it -- it was so refreshing to see a cop film that was realistic, with believable characters who weren't superheroes, the kind of cops who get winded when they chase after a suspect and manage not to kill everyone in sight (in slow motion and utilizing more moves than the entire Romanian Olympic gymnastic team). The two main characters were real human beings who screwed up, went down blind alleys, made wrong assumptions, exploded in frustration when they should have stayed silent, did the right thing for the wrong reasons, and yet, in the end, did some good. I've noted in some of the other comments that people were put off by the fact that these guys were flawed, but that was exactly what attracted me about them.

I thought the direction of the film was very understated, yet avoided the kind of studied casualness that's considered stylish these days. The story was engaging and kept me involved. The film moved along at a good clip, but took time out for the lead character to contemplate the situation as it developed. Although there may have been a few holes in the plot, I wasn't overly aware of them, and they certainly weren't as egregious as those we've grown used to in most blockbuster films.

This was not a perfect film, and the elements from which it is put together (outcast cops buck the system, persevere and triumph) border on the cliche, but it's a film I would gladly watch again, and perhaps even want to keep in my permanent collection