[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]
Connection to Once Upon a Time In America: Both star Danny Aiello
Premise: A brilliant former NYPD detective get brought back in to solve a string of murders.
Hold on a second. People hated this movie? It has a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes and the likes of Roger Ebert himself absolutely panned it?
You see, this is why I’ll admit that reviews immediately upon the release of a movie can be useless. No matter how smart or self-aware we think we are, we are prisoners of the moment. I know I’ve written dozens if not hundreds of Reactions that I’ve gone back to later and wondered why I was being such a prickly ass. I’ve talked about this before in regards to Must Love Dogs. That’s a perfectly enjoyable RomCom that was panned for being a perfectly enjoyable RomCom in an era where there was an abundance of perfectly enjoyable RomComs. However, I watch a movie like that now and wish we could get more RomComs that were that competently made. I suspect the same thing happened with The January Man. When there’s a deficit, you miss the days of surplus.
There was a mini wave of crime comedies in the late 80s and early 90s. It started with the buddy cop movies like 48 Hours and later Lethal Weapon. Over time, it evolved into movies that tried to have the best of both worlds like A Fish Called Wanda, Dead Again, and The January Man, trying to be funny, exciting, and romantic. Or more generally, this was an era of an abundance of mid-budget, non-franchise movies targeted at adults. It could be hard to stick out, and if a film felt too much like another film, even if both were well-made, they could be panned by critics and audiences alike. Because, let me be clear. It wasn’t just critics who rejected The January Man. It was audiences too. The film only made $4.6 million at the box office.
I only watched it because it fit my “Century in a Month” timeline and the cast was great. This movie has Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Harvey Keitel, Danny Aiello, and Alan Rickman. That’s very strong; especially for 1989.
Is The January Man thin? Yes. It feels like an extended pilot for a new cop series in a lot of ways. Does The January Man try to do too much? Absolutely. It can shift wildly from slapstick comedy to romance to crime and violence in ways that don’t always fit neatly together. Did I enjoy the heck out of the movie? Very much. In an age of gritty crime dramas where each movie is trying to be darker than the last, it’s nice to watch something that’s willing to play around.
The key, I discovered later, is the screenwriter of the movie: John Patrick Shanley. A year after this, he went onto write and direct Joe Vs. the Volcano which is a magical movie that mixes RomCom trappings with bizarre magical realism. In 2020 he wrote and directed the absolutely unhinged Wild Mountain Thyme that I’m ashamed to say I kind of loved. He wrote Moonstruck too, which is a beloved movie that I really need to rewatch. He mostly works in the theater and the rest of his movie output is mixed. I do think what I love so much about him is his sense of play. He takes a tame idea and wonders what it would look like if he threw something crazy in for no reason. It probably should bother me. It does when a lot of other writers/directors do it, but I like how he does it for some reason.
It’s a shame that true channel surfing doesn’t exist anymore, because The January Man is a quintessential channel surf movie. If I talk anyone into watching this, it will probably underwhelm. It’s an unassuming movie. The best way to watch this is as a surprise. You see Kevin Kline is in this movie. You like Kevin Kline. You don’t have anything else to do for the next 90 minutes. Might as well watch this for a bit to see what it’s about. Despite that, for my surprise factor alone, I’m calling this a rave.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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