Director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter J.H. Wyman open and close their character caper "The Mexican" atrociously...but there are some appealing scenes in-between for those who can stay the course. Julia Roberts isn't convincing for a second squabbling with boyfriend Brad Pitt over a balcony in a parking lot (he's involved with mobsters and is assigned to track down a priceless antique pistol they covet; she disapproves). However, both the film and Julia temporarily improve (she is particularly good in her chatty moments with gay hitman James Gandolfini, who's the real star of the picture). Nearly every scene that pairs Roberts with Pitt are weak, which could be the fault of the scattershot script. Wyman tries combining too many different elements into his mix, eventually leaving one character shafted far too early. This leads to an elongated finale stretched 20 minutes beyond the breaking point. Too bad: this might have been a wonderful black comedy, but the filmmakers didn't bother to take audiences' feelings into consideration. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Mexican
