The January Man

Given the actors involved in this movie - Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Alan Rickman, Harvey Keitel, Rod Steiger, Danny Aiello - I'd expected it to be a little better than it was. Like, that should be a pretty solid cast for a movie about catching a serial killer. It's really not.

Kline plays a detective who had been fired and is now a fireman, brought back onto the force by the Mayor (Steiger), because the serial killer's most recent victim was a close friend of his daughter's. Keitel is Kline's brother and the Police Commissioner, and both he and Aiello don't want Kline back, for reasons I can't remember them actually explaining. Or I wasn't paying attention. Sarandon is Keitel's wife, but she used to date Kline, and maybe she's still interested? Rickman is Kline's weird neighbor, who is a painter, but acts as his assistant on the case.

The movie tries to play up what an odd duck Kline's character is, in a way that makes this feel like it would have been better served as the pilot episode for a TV show on USA back when Monk and Psych were both on-air. Aiello is frustrated by Kline, because he doesn't behave like other cops, but not because he's some reckless violent guy. He's just strange and doesn't like office furniture.

Somehow it doesn't mesh. Kline is kind of goofy, but the movie isn't trying to be funny. There's a serial killer running around, the police can't find him, people are scared. This is bad. But here's this detective that brought all his pets with him to work, and Alan Rickman's standing on a chair painting designs on the walls for some reason.

The one part of it I actually enjoyed was this brief bit where Aiello is complaining that he does not want to have to deal with Kline, and Steiger gets up from behind his desk and goes on a tirade that basically says, you will deal with him, and give him whatever he wants. And when he's done, there's long silent pause of Aiello standing there, then it cuts to Keitel (sitting silently in a chair nearby). It's meant to be the two of them recognizing they're stuck with this situation, but it feels like them being stunned at how much scenery Steiger chewed right there.