This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Weird Coincidence
Plot Overview
In a quiet New Mexico town, Maggie Moore (Louisa Krause) had a marriage
contract with her seemingly good catch husband Jay (Micah Stock) who
was to provide her with the "niceties" of life as he rose from owning
a single Castle Subs franchise, to multiple ones, and beyond. But
he's behind schedule. He spends money like it's leaking from a sieve
while he pinches pennies to make ends meet. To that end he's stocked
his business with off-brand, expired product for 20 cents on the dollar
while providing sub rosa, contraband photos to his supplier Tommy
T (Derek Basco.) When Maggie discovered the little girlie pix, she threatened to call the cops.
To prevent that from happening, Tommy referred him
to ("I know a guy") Michael Kosco (Happy Anderson.) He was only supposed
to scare her, but “things went awry.” To throw the police
off the scent, they decided to “remove” a second Maggie
Moore living in town to make it look like the first “removal”
was a mistake. This gave Buckland County police chief Jordan
Sanders (Jon Hamm) and his deputy Reddy (Nick Mohammed) lots of grist
for the mill as first they considered it a hate crime (“Death
to kikes,”) and then they started looking more closely at the
second Moore husband Andy (Christopher Denham.)
The
writer has provided several character anomalies: The deputy is an
immigrant from France of ten years ago whose burgundy tie clashes
with his tan khaki uniform, and he's given to malapropisms. The perv
Tommy routinely desecrates forty dollar words; they don't mean in
a sentence what he intends. The hit man strews a colorful junk collection
about his place, which serves as clues while he uses burner phones
out the wazoo and shreds all documents. Andy pays cash so as not to
leave a trail at his assignations, but his girlfriend Cassie
Novak (Bobbi Kitten) keeps a punctilious journal in case there's ever
a book about her. Chief Jordan Sanders at age 45 is a chick magnet
in this town where women so outnumber the men, but he feels still
attached to his wife who passed a year ago. He takes up with the neighbor
witness Rita (Tina Fey) who is desperate for friends because they
all went with her husband. Now he sleeps over for benefits, meaning
she really just divorced all her friends and she lacks courage to
make new ones. She and Jordan use clashing spices on their food. While
ambitious Jay can't hold on to his money, his abused employee Greg
Wachsterer (Nicholas Azarian) hits the jackpot in the lottery.
Ideology
Conflicts arise in the
vein of, (Prov. 30:33) “Surely
the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the
nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth
strife.” The idea in the
proverb is that a state of peace and conciliation can change
to one of conflict just as a liquid (milk) can change to solid (butter)
through constant agitation (churning.) Or hit a critical area (nose)
and it bleeds. There's an illustration in the movie of a changed state
taking place after simmering over time. Jay got away with non-franchise
& sometimes rancid substitutions of foodstuffs until
one day came a visit from corporate who closed him down.
There also can be a sudden flareup of strife, but the milk-to-butter similitude would hardly apply, viz author Jess Shelton: “‘Womenfolk git easy shook up,’ Roger said carefully. ‘They go from cream to lumpy butter for nothing’” (103). In our movie under review, we see Kosco twice punch someone in the nose to have it bleed; it's a vulnerable area.
The pervert enjoys his regular supply of pictures until suddenly one day he gets busted. Then he finds himself in prison where the other inmates know how to deal with his kind. The reserved woman gets abducted and told at gunpoint to drive. When she's directed to a secluded spot—Dead End—and her abductor says plainly that he intends to kill her, now is the time to make her play if she's got one.
Production Values
“” (2023) was directed by John Slattery. It was written by Paul Bernbaum. It stars Jon Hamm, Nick Mohammed and Tina Fey. Hamm and Fey have a nice chemistry together, which helps move the plot along. All the acting was great, from top to bottom. Even the bit parts were memorable. The hit man villain was one of the scariest I've ever seen.
MPAA rated it R for language throughout, violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and drug use. The aborted sex scene was discussed as having something to do with not being used to having a new body to do it with after having been accustomed to another partner, not something much mentioned in other movies. The pace was well short of frenetic except in places, and the editing was smooth weaving together the disparate lines. It was filmed on location in Belen, New Mexico, USA. Runtime is 1 hour 39 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
A lot of philosophical discussion occurs in this movie, with a dating couple discussing what they enjoy, two cops talking about social fulfillments, a writing class delving into happiness (“Does money make you happy?”) and Pastor Roberts (Richard Lippert) ending his eulogy saying, “Three things matter: our health, our family, our faith.” I'd say this is a Christian-friendly movie if we give it a break, just not ostentatiously so. It's cleverly written, holds our attention, and is easy to follow. It's kinda well rounded and should please everyone it can.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Shelton, Jess. Hangman's Song. Copyright © 1960 by Jess Shelton. Philadelphia: Chilton Company, First Edition. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org