The Way of the Gun Review
by Chad Polenz (ChadPolenz AT aol DOT com)September 15th, 2000
The Way Of The Gun
Remember back in the mid 1990s when crime and macabre movies were all the rage? "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo" both managed to get Oscar nominations for the Best Picture, and not surprisingly, a slew of rip-offs followed in the years thereafter. That fad seems to be over but here comes Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing "The Way Of The Gun" that at first glance looks like another of those wanna-be's but upon closer inspection doesn't look like anything comprehendable. It's a crime story so wrapped up in its own little world it has a claustrophobic atmosphere - a film that won't allow the story much room to expand outside its handful of characters and somehow still manages to turn a simple premise into something so complex its ridiculous.
Complexity should come as no surprise to anyone who's familiar with McQuarrie, he wrote "The Usual Suspects," which has become a cult favorite despite little critical acclaim. That film had a great story and was well directed but had such an elaborate, confusing screenplay it leaves many viewers scratching their heads after repeated viewings. You have to wonder if McQuarrie really had everything mapped out or if he was going for the Hollywood idea that "if it's really confusing and about criminals and cops that makes it fascinating." With "The Way Of The Gun" McQuarrie seems to be capitalizing on the same idea, but this time the story is far less commercial - a shame because maybe that would have helped.
The film tells the story of two drifters with no ambition and barely a reason to live but aren't hell-bent on death either (played by Ryan Phillipie and Benecio Del Toro). They get lucky when they hear about a scheme between a big-shot exec guy and his trophy wife who are going to have a baby through in vitro fertilization. They figure they can kidnap the surrogate mother (played by Juliette Lewis) and get a nice ransom. Along the way we continually learn of the shady dealings between the exec, his wife, their hired goons and the "bag man" (played by James Caan - the only actor in the film who looks like he knows what he's doing). The exec is some kind of money launderer so he obviously can't call the authorities for help. His goons and the bag man are on the kidnappers' trail and each make different offers to get the mother back. The exec's son is a doctor who also gets pulled into the fray and wants to make sure his patient is all right. Meanwhile each of these characters has something hidden up their collective sleeves and the double-crosses, secret love affairs and torrid pasts come as no surprise even though little of it has any relevance at all.
McQuarrie doesn't know the meaning of the word simple. He seems to be more interested in showing us how clever he is than making a good movie. Everything has to be complicated and confusing, so much so that it's to the point of surrealism. Nothing is what it seems in this reality, it's one of those movies where you get dropped right into the middle of the criminal world and are expected to know most of the industry's rules and regulations. Every scene with Caan's character exemplifies this perfectly - the kidnappers already know who he is and even chat with him, getting into conversations about "the business" and how it works and we're hardly given a clue as to what they're talking about.
These characters are probably supposed to be great criminal sketches but they're more like ideas ripped-off from sketches found in David Mamet's trash. No one here really acts like a real person, and the story is even further removed from reality. It's like a dream without any appeal.
Take the opening scene for example; the Phillipe and Del Toro characters are in a parking lot across the street from a bar or a club counting their money and stuff. They sit on a brand-new Mercedes and the car alarm goes off, the owner is waiting in line and yells at them to get away from his car but they don't move. The guy and his loud-mouth, potty-mouth girlfriend and about 20 other people cross the street and gang up on them. You'd think Phillipe and Del Toro are going to pull out guns and scare them away but they don't, instead Phillipe throws one punch and the two get beat down by a mob. There's a lot of things I didn't understand about this scene: first of all the owner of the Mercedes isn't some yuppie or old rich snob, he's like a hippie straight out of the 60s. Secondly, the two main characters seem to believe that they can actually take on the mob unarmed. Lastly, it serves no purpose in the long run because later in the film the two are packing more artillery than a small country's army. If they were suicidal they wouldn't have gone on the kidnapping job in the first place (and where they get all those guns is never explained either).
There's a lot more I could pick apart about this film but that would be an exercise in futility. What it all comes down to is that nothing here is what it seems - which would be great if this movie were about pretty much any other story than what it is. Absolutely none of the characters are likable or believable. And it's all coated with a thin layer of black comedy which is good for a chuckle here and there but this film is definitely not a flat-out black comedy and its use of such seems like a desperate attempt to kill screen time.
With any film you see, whether you like it or not, you can at least understand what the appeal was to it, why someone would want to make it and why someone would want to see it. I can't say either for "The Way Of The Gun," because it has very little going for it and I can't imagine anyone intelligently defending it.
GRADE: C-
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