After his partner is killed, hotheaded cop Eddie Jilette (Richard Gere) follows his killer’s trail to New Orleans, where he becomes involved with a mysterious woman, Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), who was present during the murder.
A stranger in a strange land, will Eddie avenge his partner, or join him in death?
I have an affinity for movies like No Mercy - there are specific qualities about thrillers from the late 80s-early 90s which I enjoy. You can expect some action elements, some noir styling, suspense, horror atmospherics, as well as with some erotic thriller-style sexuality. It is the recipe for good pulpy fun.
I also like Richard Gere - he has an understanding of his affect on camera and his star persona, which I find fascinating.
Gere’s presence with those genre ingredients made me keep watching, but No Mercy was not that engaging.
The movie feels weirdly unplugged - events happen, characters interact, but it never feels like it is building toward anything.
But this is the strange thing about this movie. It lacks energy and pace, however it is never boring.
Every time my attention drifted, something wild would happen - cops make a drug bust in a working car wash; a character is assassinated with a bazooka; the final shootout involves a car going through the front entrance and Jerome Krabbe jumping through a wall on fire.
The movie is not an action movie but it feels a few degrees away from being one. The action elements are over-the-top and the violence is cartoonish. This movie wants to be more of a drama, but there is no real conflict in the film.
There is also a lack of a clear throughline for the central character. He is a rogue cop who goes rogue. Oh and he falls in love. Despite the poster and the star billing, it took me until the end of the movie to realize that the film included a romantic subplot.
Part of it is that the characters do not spend enough time together, and the time they do spend together, Gere’s character is so unlikeable that their arc feels unearned.
I like Basinger, but I never understood her movie stardom. In past viewings, I never found her to be a dynamic or charismatic performer. That being said, her unevenness worked for her performance in No Mercy.
This movie is a collection of hardboiled cliches and her role is no different. She plays a kept woman who our hero figures as a culprit, until she is revealed as an innocent party. Going along with the genre, she is a fallen angel with a horrifying backstory. Basinger’s flatness and awkwardness worked for the character - she is a person who has never had her agency validated.
If only the movie’s empathy for her extended further. While Basinger does well with what she is given, the character is just a catalyst for the plot and Eddie's motivation - she draws him to New Orleans, and then provides Eddie with someone to protect for the finale. Michel Duval is a figure to be pitied but the big turn in her character is that she breaks free from her abuser to Eddie. Her role is the worst aspect of the film and highlights how retrograde it ultimately feels.
Richard Gere is great as the loner cop with a hair trigger - he is so great he is off-putting. At no point is he sympathetic. He is the most interesting thing in the movie - but the movie wants him to be some kind of anti-hero. However the character is so abrasive, and his actions so extreme, the movie collapses around him.
What I found interesting about Gere’s performance is that he is projecting a completely different mode of masculinity, one based on violence and aggression. It is the inverse of something like American Gigolo, where his gender and sexuality are more ambiguous. That ambiguity is something that Gere has played with throughout his career - it is one of the most interesting parts of his screen persona.
From this basis, Eddie Jilette is an interesting shift in direction, although the character lacks much dimension.
That is the fundamental problem with No Mercy - it boasts some interesting elements, but there is nothing more to it.
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