Christopher McQuarrie is a very smart man. He can lead audiences through twist after twist without ever losing their interest, and he can persuade them to root for the bad guys from the start. In the end, he leads them to an unexpected place, where he asks them to fill in the missing pieces on their own. The process is sometimes confusing and at times painfully frustrating. But the process is always very exciting.
After winning an Oscar for penning the elaborately clever Bryan Singer film "The Usual Suspects," McQuarrie decided to put a bit of directing under his belt. And "The Way of the Gun," McQuarrie's directorial debut, does not disappoint.
McQuarrie, who also wrote "Gun," has mastered the art of fast-paced, fresh dialogue and tightly twisted plots. "Gun" keeps the audience on its toes - to miss even a millisecond of dialogue could cause confusion. Each line has its place, from star Ryan Phillippe's beginning voice-over to his final words.
"Gun" admittedly is another of the many Tarantino-influenced movies that have been produced in recent years. It is reminiscent of "Pulp Fiction" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," to name a few recent entries in the genre. Some critics condescend to call "Gun" derivative. Perhaps McQuarrie's ideas were indeed spurred by Tarantino and his cronies. No matter - McQuarrie makes his movies with real skill. The result is a few hours of fine entertainment concerned with getting its audience to actually think.
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Fortunately, "Gun" is about much more than a botched kidnapping job. There are several thematic ties that take hold from the first voice-over. "Gun" is largely about death: who chooses it, and the path taken to get there. As Parker says in his first monologue, "The ending is always happy, if only for someone else ... so we stepped off the path and looked for the fortune we knew was waiting for us." Mortality is the most important and most evident theme in the movie. Most characters come face to face with it. Some characters even choose it for themselves.
The acting in this movie is excellent, most likely because of McQuarrie's excellent script. Each character is unique in his or her eccentricities and reactions. Caan does an exceptionally believable job as the loyal, emotionally detached bagman. Taye Diggs, who plays Robin's scheming bodyguard, is superbly creepy and evil. Del Toro endears us with his quirks, and Phillippe proves once and for all he is not to be confused with the vapid Freddie Prinze, Jr. Each actor in this movie has created a real person.
Without a doubt, McQuarrie's screenplay is inventively original and cleverly tied together. The remarkably fresh camerawork is the same. Close to 75 percent of the images shot could be caught and shown as stills. The camera manages to convey much of the suspense, humor and overall style of the film.
"Gun" is not a film without flaws - a few touching moments seem grossly misplaced. Lewis's hysterics are somewhat over-dramatic and annoying. Everyone is too trigger-happy. And even though the characters stand out as individuals, the audience doesn't care too much about them in the end.
Despite its blemishes, "Gun" has a blast shooting images, ideas and a convoluted plot at its audience. It is fast-paced, intelligent entertainment. McQuarrie is not at his best, but not far from it.
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