wayofthegun

In film school and my years afterward in the real world, I have had a score of people tell me that
“The Way of the Gun” was just fantastic. Well, either I’m too stupid or too smart to understand this
movie, or all of the folks I’ve spoken with are convincing themselves of something. This is not a film
that attempts to make sense. That, or there’s the distinct possibility that there are hundreds of
deleted scenes that explain what this story is about and what these characters want.

I’ll do my best to explain this story. Ryan Phillippe and Benecio Del Toro are amoral gunmen
looking for a quick buck. They get wind of a woman carrying a baby for some rich couple, so they
kidnap her. This unfortunate, played by Juliette Lewis, was offered $1 million to carry this rich dude’
s baby for his snotty young trophy wife. Del Toro and Phillippe hope to ransom her for serious
bucks. Meanwhile, the rich man’s bodyguard, Taye Diggs, vows to get the child back with the
unwanted help of the rich boy’s bagman, James Caan.

That is merely the first third of the film. Honestly, that is the only third of the film where you won’t be
squinting in confusion. The rest of the movie is a tidal wave of erratic character behavior,
pretentious conversations and a story built on a stack of weakly written mini-plots. See, that’s the
real kick in the pants about “Way of the Gun.” There is not one single solid plot thread. Written
and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, writer of “The Usual Suspects,” it’s obvious Mr. McQuarrie
got ahead of himself.

Phillippe and Del Toro just want money, right? Well, no because suddenly Phillippe gets a soft
heart upon hearing Lewis’ pregnancy sob story and it seems like he wants to help her, but not
really. He and Del Toro seem to have a falling out about Lewis, but that only lasts a few seconds
and then they’re off again on their next misadventure. James Caan says he’s just doing his job for
the rich man, but he has coffee with Del Toro and for some reason he and Diggs aren’t getting
along and the rich guy is splitting up the responsibilities between them, but Diggs is having an affair
with the trophy wife and he and his bodyguard buddy want to kill everyone and take the ransom
money for themselves but that doesn’t end up happening. Oh, and then there’s this doctor guy
named Painter who is the rich guy’s son and something bad happened to him in Baltimore
apparently, but that’s never explained fully either.

This movie is a complete mess.

All of the characters exist in this fictional world just to the left of reality. Dialogue is contrived and often needlessly philosophical. I mean, would a two-bit thug
like Phillippe really start waxing poetic with a sperm bank employee about the semantic implications of questioning someone about their sexual orientation?

The shaky narrative, already weakened by useless characters (like Caan’s depressed and drunk partner), crumbles into a kinetic but unmotivated gunfight
involving not only the existing characters, but also a handful of other people that haven’t been introduced until the last few minutes of the film. The rich guy, a
major character in the beginning, all but disappears halfway into the movie and Caan’s character takes over and soon has the utmost importance and
omnipotence. Who’s leading who here?

I wanted to understand this film, but forget about plot holes. McQuarrie didn’t use enough mortar to even build the honeycomb, let alone fill any holes.