The Mexican

The Mexican is about a young guy, Jerry, who is in debt to the gang boss Margolese. On Margolese's orders he has to go to Mexico to get hold of a legendary pistol that apparently brings misfortune to all its owners. His girlfriend Sam is taken hostage just in case he should feel like keeping the pistol. The hostage-taker is Margolese's henchman Leroy, played by James Gandolfini. He plays the same type as in "The Sopranos", so why not watch him there instead?

The Mexican is an unusual Hollywood film that is hard to pin down in terms of genre. It is a mixture of gangster film, road movie, action film and romantic comedy, and it does not fit my notions of mainstream film characterisation and plotting. That can be both a strength and a weakness, and here it is actually both.

In a way it is refreshing to be puzzled by a film starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, for at first glance the film looks like an off-the-peg product. It does, however, also have some clear weaknesses. The two stars are supposed to make up the film's romantic couple, but it is not exactly as if sparks fly between them. In fact their love is rather hard to believe in, and that probably has something to do with the fact that they quarrel in every single scene they share. Fortunately they are not together very often, and that is the film's other peculiarity. The two are more or less the protagonists of separate stories, which the film then cuts between. Yes, of course there is a connection. It just does not feel that way.