Review of He Was a Quiet Man (2007) by Chads. — 19 Jan 2008

Bob Maconel is a different sort of psycho killer than the one Christian Slater played in "Heathers" eighteen years ago. As Jason Dean, Slater did a pretty fair imitation of Jack Nicholson when wooing Veronica(a pre-klepto Winona Ryder), the good Heather, whereas in "He Was a Quiet Man", the fading star of 1990's "Pump Up the Volume" gives us his own take of a ticking time bomb; a white-collar Travis Bickle-type who fantasizes about mowing down his office co-workers.

Indeed, the moment when DeNiro walks into that seedy motel to save(and impress) Jodie Foster in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", seems to be this sometimes surreal but ultimately uneven comedy/drama's starting point.

Both men become accidental heroes, but only Bob gets to date the woman of his dreams. In the Scorsese masterpiece, Betsy(Cybil Shepherd) gets out of Travis' cab. The fluidity of the film's tone keeps you guessing as to whether Bob's new reality is free-forming or not.

In "Taxi Driver", the music by Bernard Herrmann makes Travis' moment in the limelight seem like a dream. "He Was a Quiet Man" is not, by any stretch of the imagination, another seminal film about some sociopath.

But it contains a good performance by Slater, who gets nice supporting help from Elisha Cuthbert(as Vanessa), an actress best known for playing the porno star-next door.