Miami Blues (1990)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Miami Blues (1990) – G. Armitage

Alec Baldwin seems different, younger, and, well, more psychotic, but it is possible to see his later comic swagger buried deep inside his character here, an ex-con on a murderous rampage who shacks up in an illusion of domestic tranquillity with hooker Jennifer Jason Leigh.  The film is an adaptation of Charles Willeford’s book (featuring homicide detective Hoke Moseley, played screwily by Fred Ward here), but as Jonathan Rosenbaum has pointed out, it also owes something to Godard’s Breathless, a film which also saw a man-on-the-run make the mistakes that end his life because of love.  Miami Blues is no Breathless but it does have a certain unpredictable charm – perhaps this is due to the inordinate amount of odd details.  For example, Moseley’s dentures play a prominent supporting role.  Perhaps though the central theme is about the power of cultural “ideals” to lend stability to a life that is falling apart?  Although they may be only illusions, Baldwin seems to want badly to experience a domestic partnership and a house with a white picket fence.  He also seems to believe that cops have power and command respect (at least this is how he acts when adopting the role, illicitly) even when Ward’s cop Moseley is doing it tough, living hand-to-mouth in a dingy hotel room.  All told, this is a film that looks like any number of early 90s thrillers but is far more eccentric, contains superior acting, and isn’t headed anyplace you expect.