At the Movies

I have about 20 movies in the queue to watch while Jackie is away, so I think I'll write reviews.  Most of the movies are either old movies or foreign.  Tonight I watched Miller's Crossing.

Miller's Crossing is a classic Coen Brothers movie from 1990, starring Gabriel Byrne, whom I like, and it has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so all very promising.

I didn't care for it much.  The main character, Tom Reagan (played by Byrne), gets beat up several times during the movie, sometimes badly, and is nearly killed several more times.  That happens in movies, i.e. James Bond, but generally the person facing all this danger has some purpose in mind that makes it all worth the risk.  It's never clear, even at the end, what Reagan is getting for all the danger he faces.  You never get the feeling that he has any real purpose in mind.

Reagan is a brooding, self-assured guy, who is supposed to be the brains of a mob operation, right-hand man to the boss.  But his plans don't seem all that bright, and he doesn't have any reason to be so sure of himself given all trouble he gets into.  In the end, he's lucky to be alive, probably will suffer chronic health problems from all the beatings he has taken, and gets nothing out of it.

It all comes off as very stylish, with some very memorable scenes and a number of good actors, but the plot doesn't really hold together.  I have heard about this movie for years, always wanted to see it, but I wasn't impressed.