The Mexican

View Date: March 3rd, 2001

Cast :

Writer: J.H. Wyman 

Director: Gore Verbinski 

Expectations can often be the downfall of the greatest of ideas born in the chasms of the Hollywood brain trust.  Everyday, in an office, a boardroom, even a coffeehouse or restaurant, ideas for new movies are bandied about like a hyperactive kitten in yarn shop.  Once these ideas are borne, there are then expectations that the makers feel the audience will have, and therefore must be fulfilled.  When it comes to the pairing of big-name stars for the first time, popular opinion would dictate that the plot would become secondary, the focus would be on the actors, and that their interaction and chemistry would be what draws the audience in, and holds the film together.  The Mexican goes to great lengths to disprove that idiom.  Yes, the film teams Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in what would appear to be a typical movie involving the retrieval of a valuable item in exchange for the loved one.  But thanks to writer J.H Wyman’s sympathetic and surprisingly sensitive script and director Gore Verbinski’s masterful balance of the use of Roberts and Pitt, the story transcends its stereotypes and succeeds in making an enjoyable, slightly violent, yet lighthearted look at love, guns and south-of-the border lifestyles and legends.

Jerry is a man at a crossroads in his life, an analogy that is repeatedly visualized as he crosses the same intersection several times during his travails.  He is a small time bag man and runner who has promised his girlfriend Sam that he will get out of his illegitimate business and make an honest living, and an honest attempt at their relationship.    He finds out, however, that he has one more job to do, travel to Mexico, pick up a gun with a history, and bring it back it to his boss.  Easy, right? Well, if it were, this would have been a much shorter movie.  You see, Jerry and his bosses have failed to realize the historical importance of the gun that they are retrieving, a fact that they are reminded of as the cat and mouse possession game of the pistol ensues.  Part of the movie’s charm comes from the repeated and progressive retellings of the legend behind the gun.  The versions become altered, and embellished, reflecting how the same story can appear differently based upon the teller.  The implications of the guns worth drag Sam into Jerry’s world when Gandolfini kidnaps her for reasons which are later revealed, but which I will leave for the joy of the film to reveal.  There is a simple complexity to the plot of The Mexican.   It takes the romantic story, the multiple people chasing the gun, their backgrounds, and the legend itself, and weaves into an experience that is never confusing, always entertaining, and only occasionally meandering and drawn out. The conflicts are balanced, between Roberts and Pitt, Roberts and Gandolfini, Pitt and half the population of Mexico, and Pitt and his pursuers.  Verbinski never loses his focus, giving each scene the undertone of realism by creating sharp, believable dialogue to carry it all along.  The tale does go on a tad bit longer than it should, only slightly diminishing the movie’s effect, but the end result, and feeling that the movie will give its audience more than justify things. 

The Mexican effectively answers the question of how to take two of the biggest movie stars in the world, put them in a movie and not have either one overshadow the other.  By splitting them up for the majority of their screen time, Verbinski effectively balances the story, without having either of them trying to steal the spotlight from the other.  Pitt’s scenes are pure magic, as he struggles with the cultural differences in a country where he is the outsider trying to fit in, and everyone around him knows it.  This is shown in his attempts to speak the language by adding the letter O to every word, his attempts to fit into their culture by requesting a more “Mexican” rental car (ending up with an El Camino which is actually quite American) and assuming that he’s smarter than every person he encounters, when in actuality, they are simply taunting and stringing him along, springing their traps just when he thinks he’s beat them.  Pitt is so comfortable and relaxed in his role of the stranger in a strange land, that it’s a wonder he hasn’t really tackled light comedy before this.   The clichéd scenes work because of his natural and relaxed ease and delivery in Wymans words.  He forsakes his external charms and looks, in order to bumble and stumble his way to a shining performance.  Roberts, spouting more relationship and romance mantra’s then a debate between Dr Laura and Dr Gray (Men are From Mars..) also drops her image for a frantic, put-out woman who simply wants a normal life, normal boyfriend and a relationship without hurdles and mystery men at every corner.  Her scenes with Gandolfini have a surprisingly realistic emotional power.  While I’m on the subject of Gandolfini, I have saved the best for last in my performance analysis.  The Soprano’s tough guy shows an amazing sensitive side with his delicate delivery and ability to lament about his desire to find someone to love in one second, and heartlessly shoot someone in cold blood the next.  This balance is rare, and thankfully world gets to see Gandolfini do it with a magical ease.  In a movie with two of Hollywood’s shining stars, steals the movie from right under their feet.

Ultimately, The Mexican is a movie about focus.  The initial impression would be that the focus would be on Roberts and Pitt, when it’s Gandolfini who steals the show.  The overall impression of the film shows that the focus doesn’t have to be on the progression of a story to be successful, but rather on the interaction and conversations of the characters.  The Mexican needed a strong screenplay and basic plot as a stage, then performers to pull it off.  It succeeds on all accounts.  Verbinski infuses the typical road movie romance with characters and scenes that maintain a smooth progression of things even when it is dragging towards its conclusion, or meandering into predictability.  The interest is maintained and regained by the chemistry of the characters and their interactions.  In a time where movies either cater to the masses with brainless action and violence, or cater to the few, The Mexican balances those two by generating enough action to keep things interesting, and enough intelligence, romance and sensitivity to create relatability.  In this battle of the sexes, both sides come out victorious and content. ($$$ out of $$$$)

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