Tom DiCillo returns to filmmaking after a three-year hiatus one imagines was far from self-imposed, given his well-documented history of bad hoodoo in the areas of funding and distribution. Double Whammy refreshes one's memory of the DiCillo Experience from the first title of the opening credits, a wacky bouncing-eye animation set to another of Jim Farmer's playful scores. The eye makes a reappearance partway into the film as the security blanket of a cock-of-the-walk cop played by Chris Noth (here merging his characters from TV's "Law & Order" and "Sex and the City"), but it's otherwise just a visual, a symbolic gesture although not a symbol in and of itself. Therein lies the rub of Double Whammy, a comedy that's fresh for a while before petering out. Perhaps if DiCillo's last two pictures, Box of Moonlight and The Real Blonde, weren't so clever in their almost Dickensian circularity (a structure to which the ensemble nature of Double Whammy lends itself even more than those films), Double Whammy would stand on its individual merits a bit more stably.

Denis Leary stars in a straight-ish role as Ray Pluto, a policeman prone to misfortune. The film opens with Ray walking into a fast-food restaurant while his partner (a warm and wonderful Steve Buscemi) waits in the car. A gunman holds up the joint, and Ray's back gives out during his attempt to apprehend him, leaving a little boy to save the day with Ray's dropped piece. Humiliated back at the precinct, Ray attempts to put the incident behind him, but, of course, the boy has become a celebrity, and there's still the matter of his slipped disc, for which he schedules an appointment with a vaguely sadomasochistic, definitely beautiful chiropractor (Elizabeth Hurley).

As romance blossoms between doctor and patient, Ray's neighbours (Donald Faison and Keith Nobbs) hatch a plan for stardom together (I shan't tell you what it is, as it's among the funniest reveals this writer has seen; fans of DiCillo's Living in Oblivion should find it especially riotous), and his building's superintendent (Luis Guzmán) loses the love of teenaged daughter Maribel (Melonie Diaz of the upcoming, outstanding Raising Victor Vargas) to her newfound rebelliousness.

As you can guess, all of these plot strands traverse according to Ray's quest for redemption. What's lacking is the symmetry of The Real Blonde, or a eureka moment along the lines of the fate of the car keys in Box of Moonlight, which would speak to DiCillo branching out if not for the fact that in Double Whammy he's knee-deep in the same coincidence-laden turf he's enjoyed tilling throughout his five-film directorial career. If I wasn't familiar with DiCillo's past work, I'd probably consider Double Whammy unfinished regardless--the picture ends generically given the subversive bursts of inspiration that precede the conclusion. Nevertheless, there's no denying that the film is most likely to disappoint DiCillo's small pocket of fans, while the casual renter should find himself entertained, tickled, and blissfully unaware of what he's missing.

Lion's Gate presents Double Whammy on DVD in an articulate 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of Technicolor brilliance. The image facilitates the best possible appreciation of a film that barely made it into theatres. (I believe it saw a limited run in New York City after showing at Sundance.) Meanwhile, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is rather virile--perhaps satirically so--for a talky ensemble piece: from the introductory notes of Farmer's first cue to the climactic action sequence, there is LFE thunder plus effective ambience, if little else besides ambience, in the surround channels. A main-menu Lions Gate logo leads to a block of trailers for Double Whammy, Box of Moonlight, and The Weight of Water.-Bill Chambers

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DVD VITALS:
Running Time
93 minutes
MPAA
R
Aspect Ratio(s)
1.85:1 ONLY, 16x9-enhanced
Languages
English DD 5.1
CC
Yes
Subtitles
English, Spanish
DVD-9
Region One
Lions Gate

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Published: January 3, 2003