Mikey and Nicky, man. Just watched it.
When terrified Nicky (John Cassavetes) first calls his friend Mikey (Peter Falk) to his seedy hotel room and Mikey goes to him, the relationship between the two is almost like parent and child. Mikey has to soothe Nicky's fears, get him to eat, keep him from doing anything stupid, and good luck with that last part.
Both of these men are junior figures in the Jewish mob, and Nicky has stolen money from them. So whatever else you say about him, his fears aren't groundless. He gradually reveals himself to be the kind of walking timebomb who is so dead and digging himself deeper with every passing minute. Something like Bernie Birnbaum in <i>Miller's Crossing</i> except prettier and not gay. Mikey has himself to worry about, and a family as well, even if his wife doesn't seem to know him very well. He plays both sides as much as he can, going along with the hit on the surface while trying ot keep his most pain-in-the-ass friend out of harm's way.
Ned Beatty is in this as well. He's the hitman looking for Nicky. Shorn of his usual quasi-Southern accent and wearing a long bouffant hairstyle that doesn't suit him at all, he's the picture of the bored and frustrated employee. Make no mistake, though. His arrival on the scene means bad news.
2 comments:
We haven't seen this one yet but after reading your review we may just have to check it out one evening. It's funny that you describe Nicky as a walking time bomb because it just so happens we watched another film with a character who could only be described that way. Have you ever seen The Pope of Greenwich Village? The character reminiscent of Nicky as you describe him is called Paulie (played to hilarious and terrifying excess by Eric Roberts) while his foil is his cousin and long suffering closest friend Charlie (Mickey Rourke), a likeable guy just trying to make his way in the world. The film opens with Charlie carefully dressing for his job as the manager of an upscale NYC restaurant. We meet Paulie at the restaurant where Charlie got him a job as a waiter.
Unfortunately for Charlie, Paulie can't control what seems to be his longtime dishonest behaviour and has been stealing from the place by misbilling the customers. That evening the owner is there checking the accounts and fires both of them. That's when we get to see Paulie for the unreliable ass he really is when he freaks out and starts blaming the boss for being an unfair jerk. If you knew someone who set you up, cost you your job, didn't ever listen to you, rat you out, lied to you... Would you like that person? Probably not. But Charlie likes Paulie, and the only thing that makes that believable, is the fact that we like Paulie too. He's a moron, but he's sweet and he means well, sort of. He also looks up to Charlie, who hasn't really done much better except, perhaps, for having Darrell Hannah as his girlfriend and his hope of getting a restaurant of his own.
Things start to get a bit out of hand when Paulie comes up with the idea of robbing a place that turns out to be a mafia operation. I won't say more in case you haven't seen it, but with it's clever plot and sharp witty dialogue it was a great film to watch.
Ned Beatty was a wonderful actor so it's easy to imagine him as a scary hitman.
I saw The Pope of Greenwich Village years ago. Don't remember the exact circumstances. The precise details of the plot had escaped me as well. I do remember liking it, though. Eric Roberts is a pretty versatile actor. He can play cold villains, but he also makes a good likeable goof. If I recall correctly Darryl Hannah is in it as well, playing Rourke's girlfriend.
Beatty is scary in an understated way in Mikey and Nicky. And like I told Jerry, Cassavetes just acts in this one, so it's probably more focused than if he had directed as well.
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