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The Movie:  "The Mexican" is a romantic comedy/drama with a touch of mystery and some action movie bits thrown in. Although it doesn't always mix these elements perfectly, there's enough great moments throughout the movie that the 124 minutes often flew by, even though I was often pondering just where it was headed. Brad Pitt stars as Jerry Welbach, a small-time criminal who was supposed to have just done his last job, but finds himself on yet another after screwing up the previous one. He's supposed to go to Mexico to retrieve an antique gun called the Mexican and its owner. I don't think I'll be giving anything away by saying that things don't go exactly as planned. His girlfriend Sam(Julia Roberts) isn't pleased by his continuing crime career and throws him out - she heads on her way to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Jerry gets the gun - and loses it, and gets it again (and loses it again). Samantha is kidnapped on her journey towards Vegas, first by an unknown criminal and then saved (for use of a better word) by yet another criminal who was also seeking her out, played by James Gandolfini of the "Sopranos". He thinks that if he has Samantha, Jerry will hand over the gun to get her back. She protests that she has nothing to do with him and wants nothing to do with him, but that gets her nowhere. After a bit though, the two find out more about one another and take a friendly liking and understanding towards one another. Although Pitt's performance is excellent, it's Gandolfini's scenes with Roberts that are more interesting than when she's with Pitt. Director Gore Verbinski doesn't have a great deal of previous experience - his first feature film was 1997's "Mousehunt", where he followed Nathan Lane trying to get rid of a computer-generated mouse. Here, he's able to keep things moving fairly well and keep as many as a few different stories going well at the same time without much awkwardness. There are some moments though where it too sharply goes from genre to genre - skipping rather quickly from comedy to drama at times. There's a bit of slowness towards the last 30 minutes as well, as the picture begins to go on a little too long. Also, the film boasts a fine screenplay by JH Whyman to work with and great cinematography by Dariusz Wolski, who also worked on "Dark City" and "Crimson Tide". All three of the lead performances are entertaining as Roberts and Gandolfini work well together, and Pitt continues to impress after several great recent performances. Pitt has several sharp moments of comedy, enjoyably making the character a bit goofy - but not making him too stupid to be believed. "The Mexican" is one of those films that's entertaining and watchable, but could have used a few little fixes to tighten it up a bit.  |