In the middle of “The Devil’s Own” (1997), Brad Pitt mentions that a story he just told doesn’t have a happy ending because it’s not an American story, it’s an Irish one. I’ll let you find out for yourself which kind of story this film is, but the ending disappointed me. An IRA commander (Pitt) goes undercover in the U.S., living with a cop (Harrison Ford) and his idyllic, Irish-American family while trying to conclude an arms deal. There’s plenty of great performances amidst the irony (wife Margaret Colin particularly shines), but the plot doesn’t go out with a bang.
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And some people say I’m resistant to change! In “Edmond” (2005), William H. Macy plays a mild-mannered, big-city office worker who finds out his meeting tomorrow has been bumped back. Next thing you know, he’s haggling hookers over sex while becoming a knife-wielding, nonsense-soliloquizing, homicidal maniac. It’s like “Falling Down” fell down. And can’t get up. Because Macy stabbed it. And then talked it to death. The incessantly pretentious chattiness comes courtesy of David Mamet’s play, which he adapted to somehow be even more like a play. Everyone sounds like they’re Capital A Acting, even when they’re committing a felony.
Between Alice Eve’s flatliner performance and Al Pacino’s worst accent ever (Jesus Christ! Would all these Yankee thespian geezers stop trying to do Southern accents once and for all!?! I’m looking at you, too, De Niro!) I have almost nothing good to say about “Misconduct” (2016). (Malin Akerman occasionally sticks out as the crazy ex-girlfriend – that’s it.) Josh Duhamel is a lawyer in over his head. Eve is his wife. Pacino, his boss. There’s some sorta film noiry, sorta Fatal Attractiony, sorta Grishamy plot twisty stuff, but it’s mostly a mess. Evil CEO type Anthony Hopkins patiently endures it all.
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