Review of Phoenix (1998) by Pavel R — 07 Mar 2009

An excellent film which somehow seems to have escaped public acclaim. The basic storyline is quite conventional - it's based on the well-known fact that any serving police officer in the United States is necessarily corrupt, venal, violent, sexually promiscuous (not to mention abusive and perverse), frequently drunk, often overweight, and at least borderline psychopathic ... unless their name is Cagney or Lacey (although overweight can apply in this case). Ray Liotta plays a more or less honest cop who has a major flaw - he gambles (on anything and everything) and he is currently on a losing streak which has left him heavily in debt.

Liotta finally realises he has no option but to obtain money illegally, but he'll only steal money from crooks, money which has been illegally obtained - like I say, he's more or less an honest cop. It should come as no surprise that a gambler may not be the best person to assess risk or to plan a robbery when his major worry seems to be whether or not he'll be lucky. He is, of course, not going to be lucky. The heist, when it happens, does not go altogether smoothly - which doesn't diminish the fact that this is one of the best, most memorable hold-ups on camera.

It's a well shot film, neatly edited, with excellent performances from the entire cast. Liotta is rugged and charming, delivering a convincing portrait of a man obsessed with the nature of luck and the need to try to capture it, challenge it, beat it. He's a man with morals, and with the absolute conviction that you have to honour luck, that you can't welsh on a bet, or a debt. The film has a noir feel to it, though shot in colour and in far too sunny an environment.

If there is a weakness, it might be the setting - the action takes place in Phoenix, Arizona, but you rarely get any sense of place; there are a couple of shots of cactus to remind you it's in a desert, there's a neat panoramic view of the city with mountains in the background, but really, it could just about be anywhere. The city is anonymous, the action finely paced and the plot given a mounting dynamic. It is a much underrated film, certainly better than average, and deserving of a wider audience.

Translation to DVD is fine - though you do get the sense the odd establishing shots of desert and wide open spaces would be much more impressive and effective on the wider screen.