Review of The Color of Money (1986) by Christopher S — 26 Jun 2011

"The Color Of Money" is without a doubt one of the bigger disappointments in the Great Career of Martin Scorsese. What easily could have been a great story of an Old time Hustler (Paul Newman reprising his role as "Fast Eddie" from "The Hustler") and Up and Coming Young Hustler in Tom Cruise, Became a sort of uneven, horribly paced film that never really gets off it's feet. Even the ending leaves you unfulfilled and wondering why you even bothered and sort of Hustled for a lack of a better term.

It's been a while now since I saw "The Hustler", but my memory suggests that it was substantially more grim and gritty than this much later sequel, if one could even call it that. That might owe to the earlier film's being black and white adding a noirish feel to the smoke filled pool parlors and lounges where the young Eddie Felson used to learn his trade. With "The Color of Money", I couldn't get quite comfortable with where the picture was going or if we would ever get there. The basic plot is understood, the now older Eddie (Paul Newman) would take upstart newcomer Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) under his wing, teach him how to read his opponents, stake him in his matches, and collect his share of the winnings. I never really got the sense though that Vincent was ever really along for that ride, since he almost never took Eddie's advice, allowing his ego to constantly get in the way of their shared goal.

What I got the biggest kick out of had to do with the musical lyrics set to various confrontations Vincent dealt with on the circuit. Eddie's warning about Moselle was comically echoed by Warren Zevon's line - 'You better stay away from him, He'll rip your lungs out Jim' - that was great. Later, as Grady Seasons runs the table, Vincent has to consider - 'Are you gonna fall for this'?

I suppose my qualms about the picture have to do with it's pacing in the latter half, when the focus is on Fast Eddie's decision to compete again. There's that swimming pool dive that comes from nowhere, and his visit to the eye doctor when he realizes his sight is impaired. That just seemed to break the flow of the story enough to give it a disjointed feel. Later, Eddie's victory over Vincent in the tournament seemed tainted, and then of course, that's revealed to be true. I guess I was looking for the picture to end on some kind of message shedding light on the underlying decency of the principal players, but instead it looked like they both wound up behind an eight ball.

The Acting for the most part was ok. Tom Cruise was solid and at times hilarious. Paul Newman at first was great but as the picture kept going he seemed to come off as a bit of a whiner and never really regained that swagger he had earned at the start of the film. He was nominated and won The Academy Award for Best Actor. Not saying he didn't deserve to win but the Academy sometimes has the habit of giving an old timer the award after coming up short so many times before (6 at the time to be exact) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was wonderful and sexy as "Vincent's" hard to please girlfriend. she's beautiful, mysterious and with a subtle underside to her character that gives her more of an edge than the main characters. She was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award but lost to "Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters".

....We also have some great performances from guys like John Turturro, Forest Whitaker and Bruce A. Young all playing small cameos but making worthwhile impressions.

Color of Money lacks some of the important and incredible qualities that usually go with Scorsese's best pictures, and those looking for his trademark themes might be a bit disappointed. "The Color of Money" at times can be very entertaining but at the same time very mild mannered and lacking that "punch" you come to expect from similar stories.