Antsy small-time bookie Nicky (superbly played with jolting intensity by John Cassavetes) hides out in a hotel after he steals money from a local mobster. Nicky calls on his old chum Mikey (Peter Falk in peak amiable form) to bail him out of the jam he's now in.
Writer/director Elaine May relates the simple, yet still absorbing story at a deliberate pace, offers a vivid and compelling evocation of a really sad and sordid criminal underworld, grounds the premise in a plausibly drab workaday reality, and presents a fiercely incisive and affecting exploration on male friendship, with a specific emphasis on the themes of trust, loyalty, and betrayal. Moreover, May manages to see the poignant wounded humanity in the two deeply flawed main characters, who alternate between being sympathetic and repellent throughout.
Falk and Cassavetes both do sterling work in their roles, with Cassavetes in particular astutely nailing the paranoid desperation of a frightened man who's doomed and knows it. In addition, there are fine supporting contributions from Ned Beatty as rather bumbling businesslike hitman Kinney, Rose Arrick as Mikey's concerned wife Annie, Carol Grace as meek doormat Nellie, William Hickey and Sanford Meisner as a couple of weary mob capos, Joyce Van Patten as Nicky's fed-up estranged wife Jan, M. Emmet Walsh as a huffy bus driver, and Peter R. Scoppa as an anal diner counterman. Victor J. Kemper's stark cinematography further adds to the overall gritty reality. The occasional outbursts of sudden violence pack a startling punch. The downbeat ending is likewise positively devastating. Not an easy film to watch at times, but an impossible one to forget.
Writer/director Elaine May relates the simple, yet still absorbing story at a deliberate pace, offers a vivid and compelling evocation of a really sad and sordid criminal underworld, grounds the premise in a plausibly drab workaday reality, and presents a fiercely incisive and affecting exploration on male friendship, with a specific emphasis on the themes of trust, loyalty, and betrayal. Moreover, May manages to see the poignant wounded humanity in the two deeply flawed main characters, who alternate between being sympathetic and repellent throughout.
Falk and Cassavetes both do sterling work in their roles, with Cassavetes in particular astutely nailing the paranoid desperation of a frightened man who's doomed and knows it. In addition, there are fine supporting contributions from Ned Beatty as rather bumbling businesslike hitman Kinney, Rose Arrick as Mikey's concerned wife Annie, Carol Grace as meek doormat Nellie, William Hickey and Sanford Meisner as a couple of weary mob capos, Joyce Van Patten as Nicky's fed-up estranged wife Jan, M. Emmet Walsh as a huffy bus driver, and Peter R. Scoppa as an anal diner counterman. Victor J. Kemper's stark cinematography further adds to the overall gritty reality. The occasional outbursts of sudden violence pack a startling punch. The downbeat ending is likewise positively devastating. Not an easy film to watch at times, but an impossible one to forget.
