Review of Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) by Mereie D — 08 Apr 2010

â??Things to Do in Denver When Youâ??re Deadâ?? is an unusual movie, possessing artsy film noir qualities not unlike Tarantinoâ??s work from the nineties. It is a criminal milieu movie with special twists, unusual characters (pretty sick sometimes), hilarious scenes which can be very strong (Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia) paying back the guy who beat up his prostitute friend Lucinda (Fairuza Balk)).

And it seems to me, a deeper message is supposed to be out there somewhere. The question is what it is, though. The terminal patientsâ?? video messages are special, but are they more than just some gimmick? This brings us to other difficult-to-solve problems: is Jimmy the Saint a convincing do-gooder? And why donâ??t these guys just make sure they hit the road if they already know whatâ??s coming for them? As regards the girl Jimmy is friendly with: she first seemed a rather useless addition to me.

Later on, she turned out to serve some purpose after all (becoming his weak spot others can make use of). I found the dialogue a bit vague sometimes, and sometimes difficult to hear (making the plot kind of fuzzy â?? I needed a detailed plot synopsis to really understand everything).

This film is interesting and special, but still I missed something. It is intriguingly peculiar, but it doesnâ??t meet Tarantino levels.