The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Elevator Pitch: An American dentist. Oz Oseransky, working in Montreal realises that the man who has moved in next door is a Chicago hitman, Jimmy The Tulip, who is being chased by the Chicago mob, and so has a price on his head. Oz and his wife mutually hate each other, but he is still pursuaded to go to Chicago to grass up Jimmy to the mob. There he meets and falls for Jimmy’s wife. Meanwhile back in Montreal Oz’s wife forms a relationship with another hit man with the intention of having her husband killed, and Oz’s dental assist, herself an aspiring hit person, is only too pleased to become Jimmy’s assistant in his defence against his adversaries.

Content: There is sex and nudity, quite tastefull presented, and almost continuous drinking by most of the characters. The suburbs of Montreal feature; mostly big houses with extensive lawns, and Jimmy never quite unpacks. Oz is variously befriended by Jimmy and threatened by the Chicago mob. He drives about in a middle aged Toyota, and as the plot moves on becomes too nervous to carry out any dental work. There is some violence and gunfire with handguns, and time spent on a yacht in the St Lawrence. We wonder who was driving the boat.

A View: This outing was spurned by many of the critics, but was feted by Roger Ebert who said that you could see the cast enjoying themselves, and that Amanda Peet, previously unmemorable, had played the role of Jill, the aspiring hit person, wonderfully. She has more teeth than Julia Roberts! If it had a failing it might have been that the exposition goes on for much of the film, as the characters are established, and then it all raps up fairly sharply leaving you wondering what had happened, but still a watch for nothing if you enjoy black comedy.

Additional Info: We usually have a raft of gun enthusiasts telling us what is wrong with the guns, or car fanatics identifying the cars. Here we’ve got some dentists in the IMDb Goofs, telling us what was wrong with the dentistry.