Miami Blues

A sociopath plays house with a hooker while using a stolen badge to pose as a cop and steal from thieves.

Miami Blues could have been good: the characters could have been likable, the dialog could have been witty, the humor could have been more even, the violence could have been more stylish, and the story could have been more substantive; but Miami Blues is not good. It’s a poor imitation of an Elmore Leonard novel that can’t seem to find it’s own voice.

The characters are shallow and unlikeable. Jennifer Jason Leigh does the impossible and makes herself completely unattractive courtesy an annoying accent and awful haircut. Unfortunately, as the only somewhat likable character in the movie, this transformation doesn’t help. Alec Baldwin, who’s proven himself a competent actor, has no arc to work with here, and comes across paper thin. Ditto Fred Ward who, aside from his fake teeth, is nothing more than a shallow cop stereotype.

The actors really don’t deserve the blame though. They do their best with what they have to work with, and the script doesn’t provide much. There’s no witty or clever dialog and not much in the way of real story. Indeed, at times Miami Blues seems to have trouble deciding what kind of movie it wants to be: a hard boiled noir or an over-the-top comedy. Elmore Leonard’s work straddles this line and makes it look easy, Miami Blues proves just how hard it is.