When Irish eyes are dying: "Miller's Crossing"

This has always been one of those "eh" movies for me in the Coen Brothers pantheon. The guys set the bar so high with their masterworks, i.e. "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo," that merely good efforts like "Miller's Crossing" always seem to pale by comparison. But it had been a while since I had seen their ode to mobsters, so I figured, "Why not?"

Our story: Gabriel Byrne -- in full brooding mode -- is the right-hand man to a Irish mob boss (Albert Finney) who gets into a tiff with an Italian mobster (Jon Polito). The beef: Polito wants a bookie (John Turturro) killed because of some slight (can't remember), but Finney won't do it because Turturro's sister (Marcia Gay Harden) is his squeeze ... even though she boinks Byrne now and then. So we got a war, loyalties tested and shifting and -- did I mention? -- it's Prohibition. As you might guess, hijinks ensue.

All of the actors are perfectly fine here, although the guy I probably liked best I haven't even mentioned: J.E. Freeman as Eddie "The" Dane, Polito's right-hand man and a grade-A hardass. He has some of the best lines not given to Turturro. After those two guys, Finney and Polito are pretty good, and Harden is all right, I guess. As for Byrne -- who's in almost every scene, it seems -- his limits as an actor really come to the fore here. I know he was going for subdued and cool, but I can take only so much "smolder, smolder."

That's kind of a problem in general with "Miller's Crossing," the Coens' first movie after "Raising Arizona" made them stars. They may have tried too hard here, splicing a mob picture with their own quirky schtick. While the look of the movie was fine and the story wasn't bad, the attempts at fun lines -- "What's the ruckus?" and people being told to "dangle" and women being called "twists" -- all fall flat. Just seems forced to me.

Still, I can't say this isn't worth seeing. A mediocre Coen Brothers movie is better than most other movies. Turturro alone is entertainment enough, even if we have to wait a while for him to show up. As laid back as Byrne is, Johnny T. is his terrific twitchy self. The scenes with him and Byrne are probably the best in the movie, and as much as I bagged on the dialogue, I'll confess that Turturro inspired me to add "Don't smart me!" to my list of favorite phrases.