The January Man is a 1989 comedy/thriller film. It was directed by Pat O'Connor from a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley. The film stars Kevin Kline as Nick Starkey, a smart ex-New York City police detective who is lured back into service by his police commissioner brother (Harvey Keitel) when a serial killer terrorizes the city. Nick becomes involved with the mayor's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and is aided in his investigation by one of his neighbors, an eccentric artist played by Alan Rickman.
Plot
On New Year's Eve, 1988, a Manhattan socialite named Alison Hawkins returns home from the evening's festivities. As she feeds her fish before going to bed, she is strangled to death by an undetected intruder with a blue ribbon. It is the latest murder by a serial killer known as The January Man, who has been terrorizing New York for 11 months.
New York City Mayor Flynn is frustrated with the lack of progress in tracking down the killer, and tells NYPD commissioner Frank Starkey to "get [his] brother, and get him now." Flynn and Frank know that Nick is the only man brilliant enough to catch this killer. This is a controversial assignment for Frank, as two years ago, Nick was disgraced in a graft scandal, and expelled from the force, by Frank. Frank goes to the scene of a raging fire to find Nick, who has become a firefighter. Nick makes a memorable entrance, bursting through a window with a child in tow, escaping the fire. Frank talks Nick into returning, but only on the condition that he be able to cook dinner the next night for Frank's wife, Christine, who is Nick's ex-girlfriend. After a press conference announcing Nick's reinstatement, Christine and Nick shared a dinner. Old wounds are opened up, and they discuss a canceled check that had been evidence that Frank was involved in the scandal that got Nick fired.
Police Captain Alcoa is not happy with Nick's return, having despised his beatnik attitude but respected his abilities as a detective, but has to go along with the mayor's demand that he supply Nick with anything needed to solve the case. After reporting for work, Nick takes a different office than the one he was assigned because the light was not to the liking of his painter friend, Ed, to work with. After getting Alcoa to add the equally-eccentric Ed to the payroll as his assistant, Nick begins to work on the case. His first lead is to speak to the mayor's daughter, Bernadette, who was a friend of Alison Hawkins, and the last victim, but during their first meeting, they end up having sex. After Nick has Bernadette take him to Alison's apartment, Nick decides to let Bernadette stay at his apartment, because she is too frightened to return to her own, which she fears is publicly known. Christine eventually tells Flynn of this relationship.
Nick realizes that all of the 11 previous murders occurred on dates that are prime numbers, all of which are among the 12 prime numbers possible up to the number 31. Because the only one of the 12 prime numbers that has not been used is 5, he knows that the next murder will take place the next night, the fifth of the month.
Nick appears to have been proven wrong when a woman is strangled one day ahead of Nick's prediction, after which the killer leaps out the window to his death. Nick believes that this is a copycat killing, especially when he learns that the man broke a window, as opposed to picking a lock to gain entrance as in the other murders. To the Frank and Flynn, however, it is a closed case, and they are content to have done with Nick.
Nick convinces Alcoa to provide backup so he can set a trap; in exchange, Nick will transfer back to the fire department as soon as the day is up. Nick and Ed figure out that the position of the buildings the victims were murdered in, when seen on a map of Manhattan, forms the shape of the constellation Virgo. They also realize that the all the rooms in which the murders took placed have windows facing out the front of the building, and that when the exterior positions of the windows are lined up together according to which floor they are on, they correlate to 11 notes in the chorus of the song "Calendar Girl". This enables them to identify where "The January Man" will next strike.
Nick sets a trap with Bernadette as bait, outfitting her with a neck guard to prevent the January Man from killing her. The trio stake out the room in a supply closet and witness the January Man picking a lock to get into the apartment. The trio intercept the apartment's resident and send Bernadette in, where she is attacked. Nick breaks in and, after a prolonged struggle with the killer, subdues him.
Christine gives Nick the canceled check, eliminating any doubt that Frank was behind the scandal. She tells him that she left Frank, and wants to renew their relationship, but Nick is not interested, and invites Bernadette to dinner.
Reaction
The film's box-office gross (in the USA) was $4,611,062.
The movie received generally poor reviews:
- "A strange suspense thriller that is uninvolving." - Bob Bloom, REC.ARTS.MOVIES.REVIEWS
- "The January Man is worth study as a film that fails to find its tone. It is all over the map. It wants to be zany but violent, satirical but slapstick, romantic but cynical. It wants some of its actors to rant and rave like amateur tragedians, and others to reach for subtle nuances. And it wants all of these things to happen at the same time." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
- "Eliot called April the cruelest month, but then he hadn't seen The January Man. Billed as a mystery with romance and comedy, it is a damp sock of a movie that makes you wish for leap year." - Rita Kempley, Washington Post
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