The Whole Nine Yards

Matthew Perry made his mark on this biz as TV's Chandler Bing on Friends.  In every subsequent role in his career since then, Perry has played no-one but Chandler.  The smarmy, neurotic, nervous and timid characterization he carried into motion pictures was very annoying long before Friends finished its prime-time run and it proved that Perry, as an actor, is about as one-dimensional as the rest of the Friends cast.  Of course, this proved to be detrimental to Perry's endeavors as a leading man.  In a nutshell, he sucks.  He does nothing different in The Whole Nine Yards.  But the film shows us that, under the right circumstances, surrounded by true talent and subject to clever writing, even a hack like Matthew Perry can shine and deliver.

Perry's Chandler Bing is disguised as Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky, an American dentist living in misery in Montreal with his strumpet of a wife (Rosanna Arquette).  His hum-drum life is turned topsey-turvey when he gets a new next door neighbor, Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), a former hit man for the mob turned federal informant.  What follows is a string of hilarious events that play directly (and perfectly) into the incapable hands of Perry's limited acting ability.

Oz is so far removed from his element and subjegated to things and people so foreign to him, that the quirky, neurotic nervousness that Perry can only play is a perfect fit and compliments the rest of the cast to a tee.  The chemistry between the characters is on target, and stems directly from Perry; a tremendous feat considering the impressive, all-star cast the film boasts.  Besides Willis and Arquette, there's Kevin Pollack, fantastic as Yanni Gogolak, Michael Clarke Duncan as Frankie (whose interactions with Oz are, in a word, golden), Natasha Henstridge as Oz's love interest once his bitch of a wife is out of the picture, Harland Williams in what is, I think, his most serious role (and he's still frigging hilarious), and the formerly over-hyped and way-too overated Amanda Peet; the film's sole weak link.  But where she lacks in acting talent, she more than makes up for with some extended scenes of her bare breasts.  Sorry, fans of the Peet, but that's all she's got going here and that's all she's able to deliver.

Otherwise, this film is a gem.  Rent it, purchase it, enjoy it.  If you've already seen it, see it again.  It's one of those films that never gets dull.