Montana (1998)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber
Directed by Jennifer Leitzes
Starring Kyra Sedgwick, Stanley Tucci, Robin Tunney, Robbie Coltrane, John Ritter, Ethan Embry, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Released by: Columbia TriStar
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Skip it

Clair (Sedgwick) and Nick (Tucci) are partners. They work as hitmen for "The Boss" (Coltrane) and together they're pretty good at it. However, things are not always what they seem around the office. It seems that the The Boss' accountant, Duncan (Hoffman), is trying to stab everyone in the back to break up the business. Duncan is actually working for a man named Dr. Wexler (Ritter). He's a crime boss whose front is a self-help program based on the idea that you can solve all of your problems just by taking a single Step. Anyway, while trying to protect The Boss' son--who just happens to be a bonehead named Jimmy (Embry)--and bring back The Boss' whore, a flighty girl named Kitty (Tunney) as well as his money, Clair and Nick get separated and learn that someone in the organization is trying to blow it apart from the inside.

Well, this movie could have and should have been much better than it was. After all, the cast is comprised of some of the best actors in the business today. Stanley Tucci turned in one of the best performances of his career. The problem, though, is that he was the only one that did so. Sedgwick seemed lost in her character: the role of the killer was softened somehow. Sedgwick and Tunney's characters were supposed to be different, and yet similar, but this dichotomy was very muddy. Sedgwick needed more sexuality in her character and Tunney needed more of the hardness in her character to make it work. The other problem with this movie was that the script was really vague. There were a lot of twists in the script that could have been really good, but without the proper setup, the whole shebang just became very unclear. You weren't presented with the opportunity to really get to know the characters because the story kept getting in the way (rather than working with the characters and actors to make the whole thing flow better).

Sadly, all you get with the disc is anamorphic widescreen. With a cast like this, that seems like a shame: hell, with these guys it would be entertaining enough to film them having lunch. A commentary track from the screenwriters and/or the director would have been nice as well: some of the choices they made for this project just don't seem to have worked out--I always like to hear from the guilty parties so I can assess the reasons why.

Although with this cast it pains me to say so: when you see this at your local video store, keep it where it is on the shelf.