Themes: Bumbling Cops, Doctors and Patients, Midlife Crises
Main Cast: Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, Steve Buscemi, Luis Guzman, Victor Argo
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
A cop tries to sort out his personal life while a wave of odd behavior sweeps through his apartment building in this quirky comedy. Ray Pluto (Dennis Leary) is a New York City police detective who has been in an emotional slump since his wife and daughter died in an accident several years earlier. Ray's mood isn't lightened at all when he and his partner Jerry Cubbins (Steve Buscemi) stop into a fast food restaurant just as an armed robbery is taking place. Ray throws out his back while reaching for his gun and drops the weapon; a child who picks up the gun and kills the intruders is declared a hero in the press, while Ray is dubbed "the loser cop." Put on medical leave, Ray sinks deeper into a funk until he starts seeing a chiropractor for his bad back; the beautiful Dr. Ann Beamer (Elizabeth Hurley) begins kneading the kinks out of Ray's spine and starts him thinking about a new romance. Meanwhile, Juan Benitez (Luis Guzman) is the superintendent of Ray's apartment building, and he's not been getting along well with his teenage daughter Maribel (Melonie Diaz), who has a wild streak and refuses to obey her father's strict rules. Maribel is no happier with her father, and decides to do something about their relationship -- she hires two men to assassinate her dad. And elsewhere in the same building, a pair of would-be screenwriters (Donald Faison and Keith Knobbs) wants to ensure the realism of their cops-and-robbers story by going on a little crime spree of their own. Double Whammy had its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Tom DiCillo's Double Whammy has the unique distinction of being the indie film darling's most accessible and most challenging film to date. On the one hand, it's a slick cop comedy with reworked tropes from dozens of other films, and it stars recognizable actors like Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, Steve Buscemi, Luis Guzman, and Chris Noth. On the other hand, it's an absurd, reflexive satire of everything it represents, and it richly rewards reading "against the grain." It would be a mistake to take the violent, goofy, and sometimes even offensive shenanigans occurring onscreen at face value. This is a film in which a shot of a fish, which has just literally been shot in a barrel, is immediately followed by a cut to a young hack screenwriter (Keith Nobbs) asking his partner (Donald Faison), "Is that too symbolic?" His partner sagely replies that he's "thinking about Cannes." The film is, in part, an acid critique of their Tarantino-esque penchant for mixing humor, brutality, and ethnic insensitivity without consequences. What's amazing about DiCillo's accomplishment is that he simultaneously makes us care about his troubled characters. Leary, as the screwed-up cop and Hurley as his impulsive chiropractor are genuine and decent enough, and have enough chemistry, to allow us to root for them despite the film's veil of comic artificiality. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Shawn Carroll - Art Director, Susan Shopmaker - Casting, Meredith Zamsky - Co-producer, Jennifer Von Mayrhauser - Costume Designer, Stephen Wertimer - First Assistant Director, Tom DiCillo - Director, Camilla Toniolo - Editor, Jim Farmer - Composer (Music Score), Michael Shaw - Production Designer, Robert Yeoman - Cinematographer, Marcus Viscidi - Producer, Jim Serpico - Producer, Ondine Karady - Set Designer, Mathew Price - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom DiCillo - Screenwriter, Eliza Paley - Supervising Sound Editor
Double Whammy is a 2001 comedy/drama film. Although intended to be released in theaters, it was ultimately distributed direct-to-video.[1]
Plot
Ray Pluto has horrid memories of watching his wife and child die in a traffic accident. He's also a cop who's the laughingstock of New York City because his back went out while trying to stop a mass murderer — who was then shot by a child. For his back, he gets help from a chiropractor. Meanwhile, a teenager hires thugs to kill her father, who's the super in Ray's apartment building. In the same building, two young men are writing a movie script. Ray tries to get past his grief to solve the assault on the super and also return the affections of the chiropractor.
