Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts are perhaps the two biggest stars working in motion pictures today, so I probably don’t even have to tell you to go see their new movie The Mexican. But since that is the pretense I work under, let me at least reassure those of you who have already decided it is a “must-see.” The Mexican is a fun cinematic romp that keeps you entertained with its off-the-wall situations that mixes the drama of a typical hitman film with a healthy dose of hi-jinx.
But anyone hoping for Roberts and Pitt to share a lot of screen time might be in for a little disappointment, as the entire premise of the film involves their separation. Pitt’s character Jerry is a bumbling errand boy for a local crime boss who is sent on one last run before he is let off the hook to live his own life; he must go to Mexico and retrieve an ancient pistol that supposedly is cursed. The problem: his girlfriend Samantha, played by Roberts, had planned for them to go to Vegas together, and she gets fed up with his seemingly endless involvement in these illegal activities.
Once in Mexico things quickly go wrong for Jerry and what was supposed to be a simple job of picking up some merchandise and coming back to America with it gets a lot more complicated. Jerry’s bosses, however, believe that he is stalling in an attempt to sell the gun to the highest bidder. So they have Samantha kidnapped on her way to Vegas by sensitive hitman Leroy, played by James Gandolfini of The Sopranos.
The film preserves a lighthearted mood with its sense of off-kilter romance and comedic timing. Both Pitt and Roberts play their characters as not quite the brightest bulbs in the bunch, which only adds to the comedy. Their arguments are peppered with self-help group dialogue, and neither one ever seems to be in the right in the relationship. Jerry’s endless bumbling in his quest for the gun continually serves to bring a laugh, as he always is in awe of how wrong things go for him. Roberts and Pitt both manage to maintain a sense of charm despite their bumbling, and Gandolfini is hilarious in his role as his character Leroy displays a sensitive side and bonds with Samantha, even though he might end up having to kill her once everything is said and done.
The filmmakers combine these elements of comedy and drama very well, even throwing in a touch of romance with the stories that Jerry is told by several characters about the origin of the gun he is after. The screenwriter evokes a powerful sense of history and emotion with these legends, and the director brings them to the screen beautifully with his visual style, tinting the film yellow and bringing up the music so it feels like something out of a silent movie.
Towards the end, the movie starts to seem a little long. Just when all the many factors keeping Jerry and Samantha apart seem to be resolved, new developments arise, and it starts to get a little tiring. The heist aspects of the movie also don’t payoff as well as they could, with a few too many twists and betrayals for everything to resolve smoothly. In a film such as this one in which characters keep popping up out of nowhere, it seems strange that two supporting characters totally disappear without any explanation, almost as if there was more story about them that got cut from the final film.
Luckily these flaws are relatively minor. The more complex plot points pass by quickly despite their rough edges, and a surprise cameo pulls us back in towards the end when we’re close to losing interest. The Mexican is a delightful movie with an amiable cast that never fails to deliver emotionally. Though their characters are slightly out there, both Roberts and Pitt’s charm carries the film across the threshold, and it leaves us hopeful for their next cinematic outing together.
