The Mexican

Directed by Gore Verbinski, The Mexican follows Brad Pitt’s Jerry Welbach as he reluctantly heads to Mexico to retrieve an extremely valuable antique gun – with complications ensuing after Jerry’s estranged girlfriend (Julia Roberts’ Samantha) is kidnapped by a threatening yet sensitive assassin (James Gandolfini’s Leroy). It’s an off-kilter setup that’s employed to somewhat protracted yet pervasively entertaining effect by Verbinski, as the filmmaker, working from J.H. Wyman’s screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced, lighthearted comedy that’s been suffused with a whole host of appealing elements – with, undoubtedly, the thoroughly charismatic work of the picture’s various performers elevating the proceedings on a remarkably consistent basis. (Pitt and Roberts’ typically winning efforts here are generally eclipsed by Gandolfini’s impressively captivating turn as the layered Leroy.) The almost episodic midsection is, for the most part, packed with entertainingly oddball interludes and sequences, and it’s clear, too, that The Mexican benefits substantially from Verbinski’s irresistibly stylish visuals and a narrative that boasts a handful of admittedly surprising developments (and it doesn’t hurt, surely, that Verbinski has enlisted a certain big-name star to provide a valuable bit of casting within the movie’s third act). There’s little doubt, ultimately, that The Mexican‘s only real deficit is an overlong running time that prevents it from becoming the stellar endeavor one might’ve anticipated (ie the whole thing could be tighter, to put it mildly), with the final result a mostly superb work that plays unexpectedly well on repeat viewings.

*** out of ****