Miller's Crossing is a very artificial movie. The scenes are stagey, the dialog comes off as clearly dialog. It may seem like I'm criticizing this film but it is because it is artificial that I actually really like it. Showing a real love of 40s/50s gangster films, the Coens craft a genuinely entertaining story with memorable characters.
We find ourselves thrown in medias res into a prohibition town controlled by an Irish mob boss Leo (Albert Finney) who is beginning to see his power challenged by an Italian boss named Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito). Each has a right hand man: Leo's is Tom (Gabriel Byrne; Caspar's is the Dane (J.E. Freeman). Caspar wants permission to kill a man who is cheating him but Leo refuses and the complications of a decently realized if highly fictional world unfold.
Most of the machinations of the plot revolve around Tom as he is involved in various degrees with Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), Leo's gangster moll; Bernie (John Turturro), Verna's screw up brother and even Caspar and the Dane. Byrne sells his role as a smart, wise cracking adviser who even when he steps wrong with his boss still looks to help him out.
Finney as Leo is also fantastic. One can't help but be amazed at long dialog passages as Finney and Polito argue or Byrne offers advice. Perhaps Finney is at his finest in a scene mid movie where some hit men are sent to kill him. As "Danny Boy" plays, Finney's actions are a priceless moment. Freeman as the Dane is the perfect counter to Byrne's talkative Tom. He's no less smart than Tom but tends to keep quiet and he just might be my favorite character in the film.
I wouldn't say everything works in this film. I felt Marcia Gay Harden's performance a little weak and Turturro's performance is all over the map (all well done but internally inconsistent). Still Finney, Byrne and the like all carry the film strongly and the plot with its intricate complications keeps you leaning forward to what will happen next. And a quick mention for the score which had just the right amount of Irish influence and sentimentality to it to make you smile every time it creeps into the soundtrack, especially the title theme which reprises several times.
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And it should be noted that while Joe Polito always plays the same role in every one of his films, this is a film where that typecasting works perfectly.
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