Review of Jerry and Tom (1998) by Chris J — 18 Jul 2014

I think this movie, while not great, certainly blends Tarantino-style dialogue with Scorsese execution. In many ways this is like watching a more modest and smaller version of GoodFellas. Neither Jerry or Tom are really that far up on the mob ladder, they're really two-bit hitmen.

The story is deceptively simple, Tom brings Jerry into their business. At first Jerry is apprehensive and nervous about doing a job. As time progresses, Jerry becomes a little too reckless and cocky for his own good, so Tom has to rein him in, to keep both Jerry and himself safe and out of trouble.

Simple enough. Problem is the film feels more like a series of skits than a full-fledged narrative. Yes, Jerry does go through a change and his change from nervous rookie to ruthless killer is the thread that's holding all of this together, but it's not great.

It's just barely a narrative. Thankfully, the dialogue, which feels like something out of a Tarantino movie, is very good and Sam Rockwell and Joe Mantegna have great chemistry together. That certainly makes the film's structure a little more tolerable and I do find the script really well-written, with plenty of clever lines, but I don't think that the movie is probably as fully realized as it could've been.

I can imagine everybody raving after reading this script for the first time. Maybe not raving vociferously, but definitely feeling very positive about it. It doesn't come that way on screen unfortunately.

I don't blame the script, I don't even blame the treatment itself, but it just didn't come together as well as it could've. Still this was a good, solid movie with great dialogue and good acting, these elements just don't come together to make a great film.