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movie review - The Whole Nine Yards

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Sydney, 2000.11.16

I first saw this flick on a plane, and didn't think much of it. I reluctantly agreed to rent it with Sara, and was surprised that despite its definite (and purposeful) B feel, and some pretty patchy writing, this actually works as a comedy.

Willis plays a former mob killer who moves to Montreal to (supposedly) get away from it all. Perry is his neighbour, a screw-up married to a woman his secretary describes as a 'h*ll-b*tch'. Perry's wife sends him to Chicago to rat Willis out to his former bosses, from whom he is now hiding. Insert several double-crossings and killings, and you've got a strangely entertaining flick indeed. I'm not convinced that the cast was having a great time, but it works.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

—Wendell Berry