director
Brian Helgeland
screenwriters
Brian Helgeland
Terry Hayes
based on
the novel The Hunter by
Donald E. Westlake
producer
Bruce Davey
cinematographer
Ericson Core
music
Chris Boardman
editor
Kevin Stitt
cast
Mel Gibson (Porter)
Gregg Henry (Val)
Maria Bello (Rosie)
David Paymer (Stegman)
Bill Duke (Hicks)
Deborah Kara Unger (Lynn)
John Glover (Phil)
William Devane (Carter)
Lucy Liu (Pearl)
Kris Kristofferson (Bronson)
James Coburn (Fairfax)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 100m
u.s.
release: February 5,
1999
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other director
films
reviewed on this website:
- a
knight's tale
- the
order
|
Porter
(no first name), the anti-hero of Payback, is the least
detestable fish in a sea of sharks. Which doesn't make him a
great guy: he's cold, borderline sadistic, and generally a callous
bastard. If Porter were at the center of a clever little art-house
thriller, perhaps played by Kevin Spacey or Steve Buscemi, nobody
would bat an eye. But Payback is a Hollywood movie starring
Mel Gibson, whose heroes of late have usually been noble or likably
goofy; Porter is neither. It's a return to basics for Gibson,
who came to international prominence as the grim-faced Mad Max,
and it's also a risk that perhaps only as big a star as Gibson
could have taken.
The risk works. Payback is a gray and ornery comedy of
bad manners, in which our only clue that Porter is the hero is
that Gibson's playing him. The plot, based on an early novel
by "Richard Stark" (i.e., Donald Westlake -- 1967's
Point Blank was also derived from it), is another return
to basics. Porter has been shot in the back and robbed of his
$70,000 share of stolen money; now he wants it back. He won't
accept less than $70,000; he doesn't want more than $70,000.
Why so fussy? Because someone was willing to kill him to steal
it from him; that magic number represents what Porter's betrayer
figured his life was worth.
This stuff has been done before -- it was done many times before
and after Point Blank -- but sometimes style and attitude
make all the difference. Rookie director Brian Helgeland (who
won an Oscar last year for co-writing L.A.
Confidential) and cinematographer Ericson Core drain
Porter's world of almost all color; everything, including flesh,
looks blue-gray and cold to the touch. Payback also unfolds
in a universe where time literally seems to have no meaning:
Sometimes the attitudes are very '90s, sometimes very '80s, sometimes
even '60s, and people are always seen using rotary phones (even
in a car!). Helgeland, who also wrote the script (Gibson later
brought in Mad Max's Terry Hayes to rework the ending),
seems to have shaped the movie as a tribute to bad-ass cinema
from all decades and also all countries -- this movie, like Ronin,
feels more European than American.
Gibson hardly even cracks a smile here, yet there's humor in
his consistent irritability and no-bullshit 'tude (as in Mad
Max Beyond Thunderdome); if the movie flops, the entertainment
pundits will chide Gibson for departing from his loopy Lethal
Weapon persona -- as if the hero of that series hadn't started
out as a suicidal, alcoholic wreck before gradually getting cutesified.
I do wonder, though, why Gibson seems to have a torture scene
written into every script; didn't Braveheart
satisfy his masochistic streak?
Aside from Gibson, Payback is a wonderfully wretched hive
of scum and villainy. William Devane, as a bigwig in "the
outfit" (mob), plays his role as a soft-spoken, reasonable
CEO; Kris Kristofferson, as an even bigger bigwig, plays his
as a pulp-fiction variation on his cruel sheriff in Lone
Star; James Coburn pops into the movie as yet another
bigwig with a taste for fine suits that exceeds his taste for
violence; John Glover, though given far too little to do, brings
a bit of zip into his few scenes just by standing there smirking
over the brutality to come; David Paymer is funny as usual, as
a rabbity smack dealer.
And it's always great to see Gregg Henry, a veteran of several
Brian De Palma films (notably Body Double); having accepted
that his sourball features prevent him from playing anything
but sleazoids, he's perfected it. His character, who gets off
on being beaten by a dominatrix and cringes before Devane's calmly
discouraging assessment of his status in the outfit, is the freshest
creation in the movie. Maybe in an art-house version of Payback,
Gregg Henry would play Porter; as it is, he's the movie's wild
card, and Helgeland or Gibson (whoever was smart enough to hire
him) may have jump-started a deserving career. |
