There's something quite unusual about "Quick Change" that I can't put my finger on. On the surface it's your typical heist movie with the getaway featuring so many twist and obstacles that by the time it comes to an end, the protagonist went through the whole alphabet of plans, Plan B starting when the goofiest one accidentally honked, tipping the Police that the three robbers already escaped and couldn't be any other than the first three released hostages. But there's something that transcends the whole cat-and-mouse chase between the Law and three small-time criminals, something incarnated by Bill Murray's deadpan look.
It's all fitting that his entrance in the film is with a clown disguise, that nobody pays true attention to him in his way (except a few extras who couldn't keep a straight face) says something about the individual alienation that struck New York. Even a clown can go unnoticed and it's only when he fires a gun that the bank customers understand he means business. When the security guard (as usual an old frail man) asks him what kind of clown he is, he came up with the right answer 'the crying inside one'. It could be a cute punchline but over the crazy journey in New York City, it becomes a character-establishing line. Grimm (a fitting name) is a man who doesn't rob bank to get money but to escape from a city, from a condition, from an urban phenomenon denounced in more serious movies: gentrification.
The film is a comedy, no doubt about it, Grimm is the mastermind, the straight man to the goofier Loomis (Randy Quaid) and Geena Davis is the beauty who fell in love with the intellect. I suspect there's more than that, she admires Grimm's bravura and the way he never surrenders to adversity and keeps consistent with his dream to leave the city. Loomis has the desperation of a man who has nowhere to go and sticks to the only persons who accept him despite his obvious flaws and the way he is responsible to all the ordeals that take the Police back to their track. Davis is a follower but I admired her persistence too as I admired Grimm's capability to maintain his cool and identify the people that could help him and those he could help.
When a hostage bribes him with an expensive watch or when workers can't give him the proper way to go to the airport, his reactions always suggest that he's not the least surprised by these people and it doesn't discourage him as much as it reinforces his conviction. And even in emergency, he's forgiving toward a poor cab driver who can't understand a word they say and finds a way to extort some money from the mob in an exquisite bluffing act (where a young Stanley Tucci is responsible for a good portion of laughs). And yet later, when a nit-picky bus driver (Philip Bosco) asks for the exact change, he knows it's a hopeless situation and would rather endure the queue in the grocery shop than resorting to threats. It says a a lot when you can handle mob bosses more easily than bureaucratic freaks.
So "Quick Change" is about three people in need for a quick change in their lives and whose last night in New York is the opportunity to witness the most surrealistic part of the urban weirdness, like a crazy joust between two Mexican bikers or a lonely lady shouting "Flores por la muertes". So many random stuff happens that I don't think it was meant to generate laughs but to take us in a world where the escape can appear as a sort of salvation something like Martin Scorsese's "After Hours". Bill Murray gives an existential aura to his persona, and it's interesting that his nemesis, played by Jason Robards, is as disappointed and disillusioned by the way things go. Both sigh about new constructions and both are eager to help the helpless cab driver, these similarities are subtle but they put the whole heist into a whole new perspective.
Now, the film was based on Jay Cronley's novel of the same name that inspired a remake starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. I didn't read the book but the 1985 film was set at broad daylight and Belmondo played it with the flamboyance he's used to. I like how this one takes a radical, more cynical tone. The getaway in the former was full of car chases and stunts, in that one, the plot is filled with funny and crazy little escalations. It's not a laugh riot, let's make that clear, but with Bill Murray, anyone can be indulgent and accept what the film tries to say from his disillusioned eyes that make a great a combo with his punchy and sharp one-liners.
It's all fitting that his entrance in the film is with a clown disguise, that nobody pays true attention to him in his way (except a few extras who couldn't keep a straight face) says something about the individual alienation that struck New York. Even a clown can go unnoticed and it's only when he fires a gun that the bank customers understand he means business. When the security guard (as usual an old frail man) asks him what kind of clown he is, he came up with the right answer 'the crying inside one'. It could be a cute punchline but over the crazy journey in New York City, it becomes a character-establishing line. Grimm (a fitting name) is a man who doesn't rob bank to get money but to escape from a city, from a condition, from an urban phenomenon denounced in more serious movies: gentrification.
The film is a comedy, no doubt about it, Grimm is the mastermind, the straight man to the goofier Loomis (Randy Quaid) and Geena Davis is the beauty who fell in love with the intellect. I suspect there's more than that, she admires Grimm's bravura and the way he never surrenders to adversity and keeps consistent with his dream to leave the city. Loomis has the desperation of a man who has nowhere to go and sticks to the only persons who accept him despite his obvious flaws and the way he is responsible to all the ordeals that take the Police back to their track. Davis is a follower but I admired her persistence too as I admired Grimm's capability to maintain his cool and identify the people that could help him and those he could help.
When a hostage bribes him with an expensive watch or when workers can't give him the proper way to go to the airport, his reactions always suggest that he's not the least surprised by these people and it doesn't discourage him as much as it reinforces his conviction. And even in emergency, he's forgiving toward a poor cab driver who can't understand a word they say and finds a way to extort some money from the mob in an exquisite bluffing act (where a young Stanley Tucci is responsible for a good portion of laughs). And yet later, when a nit-picky bus driver (Philip Bosco) asks for the exact change, he knows it's a hopeless situation and would rather endure the queue in the grocery shop than resorting to threats. It says a a lot when you can handle mob bosses more easily than bureaucratic freaks.
So "Quick Change" is about three people in need for a quick change in their lives and whose last night in New York is the opportunity to witness the most surrealistic part of the urban weirdness, like a crazy joust between two Mexican bikers or a lonely lady shouting "Flores por la muertes". So many random stuff happens that I don't think it was meant to generate laughs but to take us in a world where the escape can appear as a sort of salvation something like Martin Scorsese's "After Hours". Bill Murray gives an existential aura to his persona, and it's interesting that his nemesis, played by Jason Robards, is as disappointed and disillusioned by the way things go. Both sigh about new constructions and both are eager to help the helpless cab driver, these similarities are subtle but they put the whole heist into a whole new perspective.
Now, the film was based on Jay Cronley's novel of the same name that inspired a remake starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. I didn't read the book but the 1985 film was set at broad daylight and Belmondo played it with the flamboyance he's used to. I like how this one takes a radical, more cynical tone. The getaway in the former was full of car chases and stunts, in that one, the plot is filled with funny and crazy little escalations. It's not a laugh riot, let's make that clear, but with Bill Murray, anyone can be indulgent and accept what the film tries to say from his disillusioned eyes that make a great a combo with his punchy and sharp one-liners.