Bill Diehl Reviews 'The Mexican'

March 1, 2001 -- ABCNEWS Radio entertainment correspondent Bill Diehl gives us his opinion on The Mexican, starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. His rating is based on a four-star system.

Rating: ** 1/2

Wow! Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini — what a cast. Plus, Pitt and Roberts together for the first time — well, sort of.

The film opens with the two of them in bed, in their L.A. apartment. Their love nest quickly crumbles when Jerry (Pitt) tells Samantha (Roberts) that he's got to do one last job for his mob boss. The task calls for Jerry to head south of the border to retrieve a priceless antique pistol, known as "The Mexican."

Samantha throws a fit. He had promised he'd quit the mob and travel with her to Las Vegas. When he tells her the mob will kill him if he doesn't comply, she shows no sympathy and throws all his belongings out the window. (What a gal.) Jerry heads for Mexico, but Sam in her VW Beetle, takes off for Vegas, alone.

Along the way she's taken hostage by a hit man, Leroy (Gandolfini, of The Sopranos), as insurance to make sure Jerry brings the gun back. Meanwhile, a scruffy looking Jerry is like a fish out of water in Mexico. He doesn't speak the native Spanish and he commits one blunder after another. Even when he finds the gun, it gets stolen, along with his wreck of a rental car. He winds up riding a donkey for transportation.

Back north, Leroy and Sam become friends; they converse about their lives and loves. There's a surprise here that happens in a restaurant, and some reviewers will probably give it away, but discover it for yourself. It's a nice moment.

I take issue with several elements of this film. First, the filmmakers have two megawatt stars in Roberts and Pitt but they're only both together on-screen in the beginning and toward the end of the film. There's not one real good love scene. Instead, it's Gandolfini who steals the movie. His time with Roberts is a genuine delight and she shines too when they're together. A scene in a roadside rest-stop toilet stall is one for the books. How about a movie starring these two? The mobster and the pretty woman!

By the way, Gandolfini, whose Tony Soprano character sees a shrink in the HBO series, has a line in The Mexican which drew some chuckles. He says "I don't put much stock in those weirdo counselor types, all they do is sit around in bare feet."

Two young twenty-something staffers here at ABC who saw the film told me they wanted to see this flick because of Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. I'm sure Dreamworks is counting on that pairing to knock Hannibal off the top rung. It could happen, but ultimately The Mexican, I predict, will have the shelf life of a soggy taco.