Film Review: Everybody Wins (1990)

The last film in the filmography of a respected film maker is usually among the worst. British director Karel Reisz wasn’t an exception and 1989 crime drama Everybody Wins is utterly disappointing even to those unfamiliar with his previous, much-lauded works.

The script for the film was written by Arthur Miller, based on his play Some Kind of Love Story and loosely inspired by real events that took part in 1970s Connecticut (and depicted by Tony Richardson in his 1978 television film Death in Caanan). The protagonist, played by Nick Nolte, is Tom O’Toole, former Boston police detective who works as private investigator and who gained some fame by getting wrongly convicted woman out of prison. This is the reason why he comes to small Connecticut town of Highbury where he is asked by an attractive woman Angela Crispini (played by Debra Winger) to do the same for Felix Daniels (played by Frank Military), young man sentenced to prison for brutal murder of his uncle, prominent local physician. Tom takes the case very reluctantly and begins to regret it, because the biggest impediment in his investigation happens to be Angela, who refuses to provide any useful clues and soon reveals herself to be mentally ill prostitute. Tom nevertheless finds out that the murder probably had something to do with Jerry (played by Will Patton), biker and founder of bizarre cult that worships local Civil War hero. Tom learns that Jerry actually confessed the murder and that the victim was involved in drug smuggling and many similar shenanigans that involved local police and politicians, including Tom’s old adversary Charlie Haggerty (played by Frank Converse), state attorney who also happened to convict young Felix.

Everybody Wins is, to put it simply, a very bad film. What makes it even worse is impression that it could have easily been not only good, but even great. The basic premise, which mixed film noir tropes with setting of sleepy small town that hides dark underbelly of depravity, corruption and bizarre characters, could have led to wondrous results in hands of more competent director or screenwriter (as David Lynch and Mark Frost would show only few months later with Twin Peaks). Unfortunately, script was written by Arthur Miller, famed playwright but whose work here shows why he haven’t written screenplays in previous thirty years. His dialogue might have worked well within the limitation of stage, but in context of feature film sounds over-theatrical, monotonous and plain boring. To make things even worse, Karel Reisz provides surprisingly inept direction, making the film look like uninspired and cheap television production, with occasional swear word or Mark Isham’s noirish score shattering such perception, but only briefly. Everybody Wins had great cast, with some members acting their hearts out but being unable to anything due to poorly written roles. Will Patton, who appears relatively briefly, makes the best impression, just like Kathleen Wilhoite as his drugged-out girlfriend. The mystery plot which is supposed the basis of this film goes in circles, and when it is finally resolved, it is due to deus ex machina off screen resolution. The ending tries to provide some sort of ironical twist that would give some humour to otherwise dark and depressive story, but it is too late. At the end, the only joke is on the viewers who made expectations on the basis of talents involved.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/41816-everybody-wins
Critic: A