Review of Miller's Crossing (1990) by Ben L — 14 Oct 2014

I'm trying to wrap my head around this movie...wait I've almost got it...no, not yet. I love a good mind-bender, and Miller's Crossing certainly ends up being one of those. Trying to keep track of the characters and who's doing what, and why Tom is doing the things he is doing, it's downright exhausting. By the end I felt like the story really wasn't all that complex but the way the dialogue is thrown at you rapid-fire, and so many characters are talked about when they're not on the screen it all becomes a bit harder to track. I could see myself watching this movie again a couple of times now that I have nailed down which nicknames belong to which guys, and I've become accustomed to the lingo they use. Sadly, despite that desire to watch Miller's Crossing again to suss out all the details, there was just something about the movie that didn't click with me. It's hard to put my finger on what fell short. Perhaps it's just the genre, since I'm not particularly fond of gangster movies. Maybe it is the way the movie walks the line between drama and comedy, and I'm always struggling to see which side they are intending to fall on.

The acting is all great. John Turturro, and Jon Polito are particularly brilliant and I wish I could have seen even one scene with the 2 of them together. Gabriel Byrne gives a very measured performance as Tom, and I like how he speaks so little but is clearly thinking so much. My favorite aspect of the movie actually came as the end credits rolled and I was left to wonder how much of this was planned out by Tom, and how much was simply him rolling with the punches (literally.) As you can see, if nothing else, Miller's Crossing made me think and that's something that a lot of films just don't accomplish. I can definitely see why people love it, but I also can see why it wasn't so successful at the box office. This movie is an acquired taste, and might take more than one viewing to fully appreciate.