I saw this movie for the first time in December 2015 and I liked it so and so. I re-watched it a week ago and my opinion hasn't changed at all after all these years. And I do think it doesn't deserve its score of 5,6 as I am writing here.
On 1988's New Year's Eve Allison Hawkins returns at home completely drunk and after she feeds her fish we see her strangled with a blue rope by a mysterious man. Mayor Flynn (Rod Steiger) orders Police Commissioner Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel) to call his brother Nick (Kevin Kline) as he might probably be the only man capable to catch the serial killer since he has unique ways of investigating. And soon Nick proves to be perfect for the job: he begins to date Bernadette Flynn (the Mayor's daughter) as she was the last person who saw Allison alive. After a few dates he discovers that the serial killer murders with a special technique (of killing a victim for every month of the year) and he won't stop at nothing for avoiding The January Man's future crimes.
I guess I kinda liked this movie because the comedy moments were very good and they were useful for the movie's timing. The cast is quite a surprising one for a movie with two genres mixed in one: I had never been a huge fan of Kevin Kline but here he gives a nice performance, Harvey Keitel gives one of his rare calm performances and Susan Sarandon other than being super gorgeous is also very good as Kline's feisty former wife. I was very surprised to see Rod Steiger here as I usually saw him in dramatic roles but he as usual didn't disappoint.
If you expect some serious and complicated thriller such as SEVEN then you have picked the wrong movie, but if you want some not too serious thriller for spending an hour and a half without reflecting too much on what happens, this is the perfect movie for you. And if you are in the right mindset, you'll kinda like it.
On 1988's New Year's Eve Allison Hawkins returns at home completely drunk and after she feeds her fish we see her strangled with a blue rope by a mysterious man. Mayor Flynn (Rod Steiger) orders Police Commissioner Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel) to call his brother Nick (Kevin Kline) as he might probably be the only man capable to catch the serial killer since he has unique ways of investigating. And soon Nick proves to be perfect for the job: he begins to date Bernadette Flynn (the Mayor's daughter) as she was the last person who saw Allison alive. After a few dates he discovers that the serial killer murders with a special technique (of killing a victim for every month of the year) and he won't stop at nothing for avoiding The January Man's future crimes.
I guess I kinda liked this movie because the comedy moments were very good and they were useful for the movie's timing. The cast is quite a surprising one for a movie with two genres mixed in one: I had never been a huge fan of Kevin Kline but here he gives a nice performance, Harvey Keitel gives one of his rare calm performances and Susan Sarandon other than being super gorgeous is also very good as Kline's feisty former wife. I was very surprised to see Rod Steiger here as I usually saw him in dramatic roles but he as usual didn't disappoint.
If you expect some serious and complicated thriller such as SEVEN then you have picked the wrong movie, but if you want some not too serious thriller for spending an hour and a half without reflecting too much on what happens, this is the perfect movie for you. And if you are in the right mindset, you'll kinda like it.