Mike's Murder

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.

There's a lot of good things to say about this obscure mystery from the 80s. The best thing is Debra Winger, who never looked better. She is beautiful and sexy, earthy and smoldering, yet she possesses an approachable, naive quality.

The story is intriguing, with a different way of looking at the drug underworld in Los Angeles. This is not about cops, gangsters and car chases. It's about an innocent woman who accidentally becomes involved in a drug-related murder. It's really all about Winger's character, although Paul Winfield stands out in a small role as a gay music producer.

The mood is low-key and dreamlike with a subtle erotic undertone. It also has a nice score that stays with you. Give it a chance.

Last night, Debra Winger spoke about this film at UCLA. The campus theatre that shows films to the general public was renamed the James Bridges Theatre in honor of the writer and director of Mike's Murder. Debra said that Bridges was an actor's director. The scene in the film where Debra's character checks her phone messages and we hear a voice say it's mom-that was Debra's real life mother Ruth-Debra didn't know she would hear that voice until the moment the scene was shot!

That example really highlights the strength of the film, the acting. All of the performances are first-rate. I was touched by Debra's quiet strength in the face of some sad and even bizarre discoveries by her character about her dead lover. A very underrated film!

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.

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!!