8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Coen-Lite, July 15, 2003
A reasonable attempt at noir, HIT ME -- photographed far too lustrously to be true noir -- packs a few punches after the first twenty minutes (questionable editing) but is hanging off the ropes by the last, dizzying round (even more questionable editing). Like any good fight, the film works best in the middle -- dodging and jabbing and poking with a learned freshness -- and what an exciting tale it weaves.
In the end, HIT ME plays out much like a Coen Brothers production (BLOOD SIMPLE, FARGO, etc.) only heavily watered down.
Elias Koteas plays Sonny, a bellhop at the long-dying Stillwell Hotel. He's too old to start thinking about his future, and he's not quite young enough to remember the lessons of his youth. He lives in the moment, which the director (SECRETARY's Steven Shainberg) displays at great length with Sonny's closeups of rehearsing his room service delivery skills while riding the elevator. Still, one scheming friend and a tryst with a beautiful Canadian hustler later, Sonny finds himself wrapped up in the middle of a heist, stealing money from patrons holed up at the Stillwell for an annual poker game.
Adapted from Jim Thompson's novel, "A Swell Looking Babe," Denis Johnson makes some curious choices with the screenplay that probably wouldn't have found wider success in Hollywood unless he had incorporated a happier ending. That's one of the plagues of Thompson's books: don't expect a rosy ending, and HIT ME follows suit with more than its fair share of twists and turns. After all, the beauty of noir is that nothing -- even the most perfectly hatched sting -- goes off without a hitch. The film manages to keep the viewer guessing -- up to a point -- but the formulaic pacing could've packed a stronger jolt in the climax.
Still, what director Shainberg learned from HIT ME he puts to far greater use in SECRETARY: in that film, the underdog is allowed moments of glory, and characters are allowed to blossom into their own personal level of happiness, albeit slightly perverted. Here, within the oft-traveled hotel corridors and Sonny's filthy living room set of HIT ME, the greatest obstacle the story presents is the duldrums of Sonny's life: come the film's conclusion, he's in a far worse place than when the whole affair began.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!, November 17, 2007
Great writing and characters, powerhouse performance by Koteas, deftly directed by a man with a vision - had a great time watching this!
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
HIT ME is a miss, July 23, 2003
I love Jim Thompson novels, and I love a good film noir, so I was doubly disappointed when I saw this movie. The direction, while technically proficient, sets the wrong tone, wavering uneasily between brutal violence and goofy antics. The annoying soundtrack was no help, as it seemed at times like it was intended for a light comedy. Elias Koteas' one-note performance portrays his character as if he was totally clueless, making him look as if he had just graduated from the Blue Lagoon School of Acting (Some day I'm going to count how many close-up shots there are of his dumbstruck face. There seemed to be quite a few.). When you find some of the supporting characters are more interesting, you know the movie is in trouble.
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