Trigger Happy
With Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane
Written and Directed by Larry Bishop
(MGM/UA)
by Scott Hefflon
Trigger Happy has more bit parts than a Swiss watch. The main difference is that all those little gears and stuff probably provide some intricate function to the whole. I trust the Swiss. I don’t trust Hollywood. Richard Pryor plays a Black, possibly blind guy during a completely unnecessarily trippy hallway saunter, Rob Reiner plays a laughing cabby, Billy Idol plays an aging punk gunslinger whose “fuck you” sentiments are graciously cut short by a real actor’s bullet, Paul Anka plays a lounge crooner, Gregory Hines plays a snappily-dressed mob dude whose death is more significant to the plot than his role, Burt Reynolds plays a broad-grinning bad guy with a big gun, and Kyle MacLachlan plays a rival power-hungry mob boss you’re just waiting to see get whacked. Then we get to the heavy hitters: Diane Lane and Ellen Barkin play Grace and Rita, the rivalrous Everly sisters, both of whom are being consoled (amongst other things) by lightening-handed smoothie Mickey Holiday, played by Jeff Goldblum. (Jeffy’s boyish blinks, touching stutters, and fiendishly playful smilings make him still one of the most fluid, graceful yet masculine actors. Boy, do I hope he’s a jerk in real life.) Gabriel Byrne plays Ben London, a dull-witted thug who offers sound advice, helpful philosophies, and then blows your kneecaps off. And reigning over all the chaos is Vic, the mob boss, played wonderfully by Richard Dreyfuss, who’s fresh outta the loony bin.
The tension mounts throughout the film as everyone anticipates Vic’s homecoming, and how he’s going to “play” the fact that his main squeeze is in hiding and only her lover, Mick, his swanky sharp-shooter, knows where she is. Between the witty interplay of the characters (delivering the mobster lingo effortlessly and dropping in a few non-gratuitous thought-provoking gems to boot) and the building dynamic of “Oh man, now he’s really going to kill him,”Trigger Happy struts through a rather mundane plot with grace (no pun intended) and cheese. It relies heavily upon the personalities of the characters, and the nuances the actors bring to them. From the lip-wetting evasiveness of Mick to the hulking, silent threat of new-gun-in-town Nick Falco (played, either by wild coincidence or intentional irony, by Larry Bishop), Trigger Happy never falls victim to its own stylishness, nor does it shoot itself in the foot while juggling too many egos and outlandish subplots. There is a dramatic balance, and an immaculate sense of timing in both the humor and the movement – answers are chosen carefully, the impact of new developments are left to sink in during a lingering close up, yet the tempo never slows or stumbles. Neither cheap laughs nor wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am action are found here, only talented actors and fine writing.
