For a movie in which all the characters are attempting to kill one another, The Whole
Nine Yards has a lot of charm. A screwball-ish black comedy about a dentist who discovers
he's living next door to a hitman hiding out from the mob boss he's turned canary on, this
keeps you smiling and has an impressive laugh-out-loud quota. It's not the funniest film
ever made but is one of those endearing chucklers which every home library needs.
A game cast having fun with their characters is the main attraction as the enjoyably
convoluted plot finds tooth extractor Oz Oseransky (Matthew Perry) mixed up in a plot to
blow the whistle on The Tulip and collect the spotter's fee from mobster Janni Gogolak
(Kevin Pollak), a Hungarian with an impenetrable accent. Perry, not anyone's favourite
actor as far as I know, is a revelation in his best performance to date. His pratfalls
alone are worth the price of the DVD, particularly those which bring him into close
contact with Gogolak's minder Frankie Figs, played by giant Michael Clarke Duncan of The
Green Mile fame. Willis piles on the charm (minus the smirks which make him annoying
sometimes) as Jimmy with lines like "it's not important how many people I kill,
what's important is how I get along with the people who are still alive". The women
are fun, too, with Rosanna Arquette playing Perry's monstrous wife; a chain-smoking
harradin from hell who wants him dead. Even better is Amanda Peet as Perry's surgery
assistant and would-be assassin Jill, who's hit the jackpot when her idol The Tulip
arrives in town. All these shenanigans zip along at a brisk clip, making this combination
of murder and mirth a very appealing one.
The 19 chapter stops in the 95 minute running time allows easy access to your favourite
scene and interviews with key cast and director Jonathan Lynn are welcome additions.
Lynn's commentary track is fairly straightforward; he's no great raconteur but his film is
one which delivers a rental fee's worth of laughs several times over.
Richard Kuipers
Published: November 16, 2000
