Payback
Paramount Pictures
Starring Mel Gibson
1 Hour 42 Min
Mel Gibson is supremely entertaining in this funny, dramatic and brutal noir comedy/drama. The film
has a casualness and coolness about it that is wild, a hoot and simply a whole lot of fun.
The story starts by introducing us to Gibson's character, Porter. He explains in narration and flashback
just how he got to where he is, which is currently sitting on the table of a backroom surgeon who's trying
to get quite a few bullets out of Porter's back while drinking quite a decent amount of alcohol. Fixed up
and back on the streets, we see Porter in action. He steals from the homeless, robs a wallet and fixes himself
up with some new clothes and a nice meal in a sequence that sets up the suprisingly comic deadpan tone of not
only Gibson's character, but the entire movie as well.
We're also let in on just what happened. His partner, Val(played with zest and good comic timing by Gregg Henry) teamed
up with Porter's ex-wife(played by Deborah Kara Unger of "The Game") and took a big score from a robbery and left
Porter for dead. Back to the story at hand: Porter's back, and he works himself up the ladder until it seems as
is he's ready to threaten the world at large. And Gibson is so believeable that you'd think he just might. Along
his journey to the top of the food chain we meet quite a cast of characters, from a taxi czar(played by the always
very funny David Paymer from "Get Shorty"). Gibson and Paymer have a comic style of their own, but they work really
well in their scenes together. We also meet Gibson's ex girlfriend, played by Maria Bello. Gibson's dark character
and Bello have some great scenes, dialogue and chemistry together where they talk about the future they could be having together if they
had gotten out of all this business ages ago. Both of the actors do a fine job in getting us to care that just maybe
they will get away from it all when it's all said and done.
All Porter wants is his share of the money back. He doesn't want all of the score, just $70,000 of it. To get it,
he'll destroy anyone or anything. It's a cold character and although the story says all he wants is the cash, it's
more likely that Porter's just looking to settle the score with anyone who has the misfortune to step in front of him, which includes a Syndicate boss played well by Kris Kristofferson(whose character was apparently not in the original cut of the movie)
There were quite a few problems in the making of this film, which, after seeing it, are unfortunate. Director Brian
Helgeland(who also wrote "LA Confidential") walked off the job after Gibson(and probably studio folk) thought the
first time around wasn't quite right. Originally supposed to be released last August, "Payback" went back for a set
of reshoots and although I would have liked to have seen the original product, I've got to compliment the filmmakers
for editing the new content into the film well enough that the current film doesn't feel fractured or like there are
obviously parts missing, although I do believe I saw a strange cut during one of the first scenes with Gibson and Bello
that looked like there was a lot more to that scene.
I really liked Helgeland's work myself. The script is full of fun "bad guy" dialogue and quite a few plot twists that
I found really entertaining. Being watchable is never a problem in "Payback": the acting is fun, the dialogue is great and
there's even some great stuntwork. If anything, the film's tone and dialogue seemed similar to another recent noir
film that I enjoyed, the Wachowski Brothers film, "Bound", although I didn't think this picture was quite as successful(pretty close, though).
Gibson gives a performance that's a lot of fun to watch and, to be honest, I liked his performance as the anti-hero
here a whole lot more than what he did in the "Lethal Weapon" films. Although I must warn that "Payback" is a brutal film
with quite a bit of violence, it's smart in the way that it seems to have a whole lot more thought put into the dialogue
and plot twists than most action films; there's also a whole cast of characters in "Payback" that are very memorable.
After "Payback" I definitely wasn't looking for my money back. I left feeling like I'd definitely gotten my money's worth.
