Stay Strapped: Ryan Phillippe (left) and Benicio del Toro (right) star in 2000’s neo-noir crime thriller The Way of the Gun.
The Way of the Gun is not for everyone. Without a single sympathetic character to root for or identify with, the movie is like a car accident on a freeway—you know it’s going to be gruesome but you can’t help to slow down and look.
Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro play a pair of two-bit criminals who kidnap a pregnant surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) for a $15 million ransom. Unbeknownst to them, the kidnapped girl has ties to a very powerful, crooked business tycoon.
Veteran character actor James Caan (Sonny from The Godfather) steals the movie as a “cleaner” in charge of rescuing the pregnant girl for the tycoon and to “take care” of the kidnappers as well.
After winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie tried his hand at directing with this raw and relentless crime film debut. Here McQuarrie shows us his gift for dialogue — sometimes funny, always clever. He also builds up elaborate sequences of violence, like the stunning kidnapping sequence at a clinic and the subsequent escape and the final showdown at a mexican brothel that goes on for almost half an hour!
Just like his previous movie, The Way of the Gun is full of twists and turns. The opening scene (with a hilarious cameo by comedian Sarah Silverman) sets the tone not only for what will be expected during the rest of the film, but it also introduces the main characters. Both Phillippe and del Toro are beaten up senseless for something that could have been avoided had they not been so stubborn, violent and stupid.
If you liked Reservoir Dogs and Scarface, this movie might be your cup of tea. It was for me. You have been warned.
