Albino Alligator Reviews

Small-scale character study of three small-time crooks and the barflies they hold hostage when a heist goes terribly wrong. Dova (Matt Dillon), his brother Milo (Gary Sinise) and their redneck, hair-trigger-psycho buddy (William Fichtner) are the bad guys; they try to rob a warehouse and through a series of mishaps wind up with half the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on their tails. Milo is wounded, and they inevitably choose to hole up in the wrong dive: Dino's Last Chance Bar (heavy name!) is below street level and doesn't have a back entrance. So they take hostages -- Dino (M. Emmet Walsh), barmaid Janet (Faye Dunaway), and the few bedraggled customers (Viggo Mortensen, Skeet Ulrich and John Spencer) -- and cook up an escape plan that's doomed from the get-go. Actor Kevin Spacey, who should be commended for keeping his directing debut small and unpretentious, nevertheless gives his cast plenty of room to emote, and they more than oblige. Sure, the setup is artificial, the ending feels false and the whole thing has the air of a filmed play, which has a lot to do with the fact that it's virtually a one-set piece. But the character relationships are solid and there's blessed little in the way of smug, smart talk. Overall the predators are better served than the prey: Sinise, Dillon and Fichtner are all utterly believable, while Dunaway's conniving, soiled belle and Mortensen's man with a secret come closer to being cliches. But isn't that always the way?