1995 was a banner year for Christopher McQuarrie that culminated in an Academy Award for his screenplay for The Usual Suspects. But after that year, it seems as if he dropped off the radar in Hollywood, taking time off from making movies to distance himself from the hype that surrounded The Usual Suspects when it was released.
Now, five years later, he has released his first effort as a director as well as screenwriter, The Way of the Gun, and it seems as if the hiatus was a good idea on McQuarrie’s part. The film, based solely on its own merits, is an interesting story with strong dialogue and great character development. Had it been released in closer proximity to The Usual Suspects, however, the inevitable comparisons of the two films would have dubbed The Way of the Gun inferior, robbing it of the attention from moviegoing audiences it definitely deserves.
The Way of the Gun follows two men, played by Ryan Phillipe and Benicio del Toro, who have strayed from the beaten path of morality and will do literally anything to survive. By chance they overhear a conversation about a woman (Juliette Lewis) who is being paid a million dollars to carry the child of an older, rich man and his young, trophy wife. Phillipe and del Toro decide to kidnap the woman, but they soon learn that the rich man has underworld connections which might prevent them from paying the ransom.
The story manages to maneuver through its twists and turns with relative ease, carrying the audience along with a genuinely gripping tale until the final climax. At times the various interwoven subplots can get a little confusing, but the main story involving the kidnapping is always quite clear. While questions about the baby’s true parentage are interesting and add to the main story, “twists” involving the trophy wife’s affair with a bodyguard and a discovery about the baby’s doctor only detract from the central plot and muddle it further. Hopefully McQuarrie will learn to keep it simple in the future, but we cannot fault him for his inexperience here.
Despite this weakness, McQuarrie does still have strengths as a filmmaker. Throughout the film, the violence is subtle. The initial kidnapping scene is told mostly from the perspective of the victim, a technique which allows a lot of the gunplay to occur off-screen and thus be left up to the viewer’s imagination. McQuarrie builds up to the end of the film, keeping the violence from becoming sensationalized until all hell breaks loose in the final scene.
McQuarrie also clearly shows his strengths here as a writer, with some very realistic and powerful dialogue that also happens to be incredibly hip. Philosophical monologues, such as one Phillipe delivers in which he questions whether they should set Lewis free, don’t seem out of place; they truly gel with the characters’ emotions in the situations. McQuarrie also doesn’t over-write; with only a few words, both del Toro and Phillipe develop their characters from stereotypical crooks into fully rounded-out human beings.
Of course it doesn’t hurt anything that the actors are all terrific and can express themselves without words. An interchange between del Toro and a mobster (James Caan) sent to negotiate the ransom is brilliant in its simplicity. The conversation itself is not memorable; the acting carries the scene. The two first size each other up with cool, quiet hostility; then once business is done, they settle down for a nice cup of coffee, models of civility. Caan especially is brilliant in his role, which involves yet another subplot about his relationship with Lewis that actually works well within the context of the film.
Had the film had a veteran for its director, some of the confusion surrounding unnecessary side stories would surely have been eliminated. But as a first effort, The Way of the Gun stands out as quite an amazing film. McQuarrie juggles the powerful script and fabulous acting well, and it all pays off in the end. If this is a sign of things to come, then the outlook is good. I only hope that we don’t have to wait another five years for his next film.
