Mike's Murder

This movie is compelling because the character of Betty is so innocent about what is going on in this murky tennis coach. It makes it easy to see how a normal person could find themselves in way over their heads without knowing it. The kitchen scene with the pal of Mike's who manages to get away from the bad guys is gut wrenching. Debra Winger has never gotten the breaks that she richly is due. I feel that it is compelling that the late Bette Davis stated that of the new actresses that Ms Winger was the most like her and I don't think that she was merely referring to their bad press.

This is one of the most harrowing pictures I have ever seen. It is a very good and very underrated film. All of the actors do a great job in their roles and Darrell Larson gives an outstanding portrayal of a young man who inadvertently signed his own death warrant.

I only wish that this film was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, best actress and best supporting actor.!!

If you have not seen this film, be sure and check it out--nerve wracking, nail-biting, and an edge of your seat film--you don't know what to expect from minute to minute.

One of the best films of any year!!

I confess I had a hard time with this one.

I am a big fan of Debra Winger. This film was written by James Bridges and produced by a wonderful friend, Jack Larson, Jimmy Olsen of Superman fame.

Given the talent involved, I was disappointed. One reason was studio interference, which you can read about on IMDb. The other reason for me was the story itself.

Jim Bridges was a wonderful writer and director. He's responsible, in fact, for one of the all-time most terrifying Alfred Hitchcock episodes ever - An Unlocked Window - talk about sleepless nights for weeks. I went to bed with a knife.

The film concerns a young woman, Betty (Winger) who works as a bank teller and is infatuated with her tennis instructor, Mike (Mark Keyloun). They wind up in bed together once. After that, he says he'll call, he wants to see her, but it doesn't happen.

One day she runs into him while driving and gives him a ride. Its obvious he's in trouble. He admits he owes a drug dealer money and is staying out of sight.

Okay, someone keeps promising to call and doesn't, and I hear the words drug dealer, I am so done with this person. I know she's young. I was once young myself. I would have been gone. What was she thinking?

Somehow Betty is still interested. He makes a late night date with her. He and a friend go out to make a drug deal. While there, the dealer steps out, and Mike's friend has Mike watch for the dealer while Pete steals some coke. Is the problem that these guys never saw Breaking Bad? What would possess someone to do that?

The next day Betty learns he's dead and tries to find out what happened. She winds up in horrific danger.

Winger is terrific, and Darrell Larson as Pete is terrifying.

The film moves slowly until the last thirty minutes, which are scary as all get-out. I would have liked to have seen Bridges' original vision. However, I had so much trouble with these characters being so foolish, I wonder.

For some inexplicable reason, critics find this film hard to follow. Actually, it's very coherent and surprisingly powerful. Debra Winger plays a bank employee who falls for her tennis coach, a young stud named Mike. When Mike is brutally murdered by drug dealers, Winger's character, Betty, is drawn into the L.A. underworld in her quest to find out why he was killed. What makes this film so great is its quiet realism. Most latter day noirs suffer from over-the-top plotting, mega-violence, and cartoonish effects. Moving by indirection and inference, MIKE'S MURDER skirts a hellish world rather than diving in, a narrative strategy that makes it eerily believable and deeply disturbing. Check it out.

My experience with this film differs from some of those who seem to be objecting to both the plot and the cast.

I thought the idea of a 20's something woman who immerses herself in a quasi-relationship with a person on the fringe of society to be interesting. Winger turns in a terrific performance. Part of the human experience or journey is that one encounters difficult moments in one's life - including anticipating relationships one wants desperately to work out.

Betty is in the unfortunate position of having to view Mike from afar as the latter is caught in a nightmarish world of drugs and deceit. I found Mike's drug partner in crime very compelling. One had a real sense of dread and doom as he tried to "make-up" for an irredeemable mistake. Paul Winfield is spot on as the record producer who has also suffered a loss.

All in all, what we have here is a subtle film which is compelling and which a typical focus group would probably pass over. One good example of why film producers and directors should stay away from them and let their artistic visions guide their actions.