Minofed

I laughed all the way through "The Whole Nine Yards," then hated myself the next morning when I realized what an amoral a film it is.

To cite a few examples: One of the main characters commits several murders-including his best friend and a law enforcement officer--yet winds up going free and collecting $9 million to boot. Another character is arrested for a murder she didn't commit. Still another character sleeps with another man's wife, commits fraud and winds up $1 million richer.

If you see the film you'll delight in wonderful performances by Bruce Willis (the most relaxed he's appeared on screen), Matthew Perry (finally-a movie that captures his wit and physical comedy talents), Michael Clarke Duncan and especially Amanda Peet in a star-making role as a killing-for-hire-wannabe.

You'll note the easy relationship among the characters-they actually appear to like each other in real life. (They probably do: Duncan appeared with Willis in "Armageddon," and we're told that Bruce was the reason Duncan got his Academy-nominated role in "The Green Mile." Perry had a cameo in Willis' "Disney's The Kid"). And you'll appreciate the plot twists and director Jonathan Lynn's brisk direction.

You'll just hate yourself in the morning.

When `Six Days Seven Nights' was released in 1998, it was during the time of co-star Anne Heche's celebrated relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. The question was not so much how good the film was, but would the public accept a lesbian playing a romantic interest of Harrison Ford's. The answer was, `no.' The film underperformed at the box office.

And that's a shame, because Heche is terrific. She takes a stereotypical role, that of a New York magazine editor stranded on an island with pilot Ford, and instead of giving us a typical pampered/complaining/fearful woman, gives us someone who is alive, brave and resourceful.

The rest of the film is a throwaway. Ford has played this type of character many times before. A subplot of murderous pirates attacking Ford and Heche belongs in another film, and the mutual attraction of Heche's fiance (played by David Schwimmer with his worst `Friends' mannerisms) and Ford's girlfriend (Jacqueline Obradors) is a waste of time.

The film classic `Double Indemnity' has become a template for dozens of movies. A woman is involved in an abusive and/or loveless marriage. She meets a man, and they begin to have an affair. She tells him how miserable she is in the marriage, and he agrees to help her murder her husband. The man believes he is skilled enough to cover up the crime. But then the cover-up begins to unravel.

Part of the joy of watching films of this genre is trying to predict how things are going to go wrong, and whether the wife (who almost always stands to inherit a fortune after her husband dies) will eventually betray her lover.

`China Moon' follows this formula except for two deviations. The wife (played by Madeleine Stowe) alone kills the husband (Charles Dance, in another example of a British actor trying to use a Southern accent, and sounding ridiculous). The lover (a detective played by the always good Ed Harris) doesn't kill the husband, but he does agree to cover up the crime. But more importantly there is a plot twist toward the end of the film that is unbelievable and sends the film off in the wrong direction.

The movie would have been better served if it had followed the template and instead played off the a relationship between Harris and his partner, played by Benicio Del Toro. Early in the film the veteran Harris chastises his young partner for not being observant. A better plot line would have been for Del Toro to prove his partner wrong.