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Jerry and Tom is not the cartoonish comedy its culturally loaded title would suggest, but an off-beat buddy picture with a deft directorial touch that doesn't quite lift it from its verbose stage origins. Jerry (Sam Rockwell) is a fumbling car-lot gopher in the wrong place at the wrong time. He watches paternal, easygoing coworker Tom (Joe Mantegna) blithely strangle a man to death. He's a used-car salesman by day and a blue-collar hit man by night, and he gets his assignments right from the lot owner (a paunchy, punchy Maury Chaykin). Before long Tom is mentoring Jerry, a real cool customer who gets downright ch
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Jerry and Tom is not the cartoonish comedy its culturally loaded title would suggest, but an off-beat buddy picture with a deft directorial touch that doesn't quite lift it from its verbose stage origins. Jerry (Sam Rockwell) is a fumbling car-lot gopher in the wrong place at the wrong time. He watches paternal, easygoing coworker Tom (Joe Mantegna) blithely strangle a man to death. He's a used-car salesman by day and a blue-collar hit man by night, and he gets his assignments right from the lot owner (a paunchy, punchy Maury Chaykin). Before long Tom is mentoring Jerry, a real cool customer who gets downright chilling in his sadistic delight in murdering strangers for cash. Veteran character actor Saul Rubinek makes his directorial debut in this adaptation and expansion of Rick Cleveland's short stage play, eschewing style (though his smooth scene transitions are lovely and inventive) for ensemble performance. His cast (including William H. Macy, Ted Danson, Peter Riegert, and a sly turn by Charles Durning as a retiring pro who may have done both Kennedy and Elvis--"I ain't saying I did, and I ain't saying I didn't") is uniformly excellent. It's a character piece for guys, where the violence is left largely (though not completely) off-screen and the working-class killers spend their hours talking about lost loves, family crises, and power tools. --Sean Axmaker
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Manufacturer: Miramax
Release date: 1 August 2000
EAN: 9786305958697 UPC: 717951005540
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