# Maverick (1994)

### reviewed by
Scott Renshaw

                                       MAVERICK
                            A Film Review by Scott Renshaw
                             Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw

Starring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner, Alfred Molina, Graham Greene, James Coburn. Screenplay: William Goldman. Director: Richard Donner.

William Goldman may be as famous in the film industry for one quote as he is for his screenplays (BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, MISERY). "Nobody in Hollywood knows anything," he wrote, and that pithy line became the mantra for anyone who was every frustrated by the movie-making machinery. However, Goldman overlooked the one thing Hollywood does know: it knows how to package. Witness the above-the- line talent assembled for MAVERICK: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, director Richard Donner, composer Randy Newman, and yes, even Goldman himself. One might expect from that list that MAVERICK is a good-looking, good- sounding, good-natured production, and it is. And little more. MAVERICK is pleasant, but it never really takes off, opting to replace a solid narrative with a series of sketches of widely varying quality.

Gibson plays Bret Maverick, a roguish gambler much better at playing cards than he is at playing hero. He wants to get into a riverboat game with a $500,000 pot, but he finds himself $3,000 short of the required $25,000 buy-in. Complicating his quest for cash is Annabelle Bransford (Foster), a faux-Southern con artist who covets Maverick's hefty wallet, and straight arrow lawman Zane Cooper (James Garner). Maverick also must content with a gambler (Alfred Molina) with a particular axe to grind. Along the way to the big game, Maverick meets up with a succession of "friends" who owe him money, resulting in a string of double- and triple-crosses through to the final scene.

The "plot" of MAVERICK is really just a tool to get him into a number of situations involving money and duplicity: Maverick in a saloon poker game; Maverick trying to collect from a friend at a bank; Maverick, Annabelle and Cooper trying to recover money stolen from a group of missionaries. Some of these moments are quite entertaining, particularly an encounter with a group of Indians with whom Maverick enjoys a special rapport. Gibson and Foster are also quite good together, generating a lot of smiles simply from the spark of their interaction. Gibson in particular is perfectly cast as Maverick, a sly but ultimately big- hearted fellow with a gift for avoiding danger. There is enough charm and energy in his performance to carry MAVERICK over many of its rough spots.

It's a shame that MAVERICK misfires nearly as often as it hits. It's a peculiar mixture of missed opportunities, overkill and necessary but unfortunate editing decisions (which whittled this once two and a half hour film to a still over-long 2:05). Early in the film, Maverick shows up a young gunfighter, but the expected showdown never comes; instead, the gunfighter stands and politely excuses himself. Later, Maverick runs into a group of tough guys to whom he owes $20. When he produces a $100 bill and asks for change, you expect a slick con, but again MAVERICK doesn't quite follow through. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a sequence where Maverick is in a bank during a robbery committed by a familiar actor in a cameo role. Once the actor is unmasked, the joke should be over, but it's milked for more than it's worth in a way that made me think, "All right, I get the joke." MAVERICK is full of these fits and starts, making it hard for me to like it as much as I wanted to.

MAVERICK concludes with a number of plot turns reminiscent of THE STING, and didn't necessarily find them predictable, I didn't really find them all that interesting, either. By the time it hits the final fifteen minutes, MAVERICK finds itself in serious danger of overstaying its welcome, ending with far less energy than it begins. Still, MAVERICK is what summer movies are generally meant to be: big, light entertainment. As frequently as it pulled its comedic punches, MAVERICK still had enough dopey fun to be worth a matinee look. But if the inevitable sequel rolls around, I hope Gibson, Donner and company learn their lesson and start with a script from which they don't need to cut so much.

         On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 lethal westerns:  6.

    --
    Scott Renshaw
    Stanford University
    Office of the General Counsel

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