The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Directed by Jonathan Lynn. Starring Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis, Amanda Peet, Natasha Henstridge, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kevin Pollak, Harland Williams, Carmen Ferland. [R]

Unhappily-married dentist Perry discovers that his new neighbor is notorious hitman, Jimmy the Tulip (Willis). His shrew of a wife (Arquette) nags him into giving Jimmy up to Pollak’s mob boss, which leads him to meeting (and becoming smitten with) Jimmy’s statuesque estranged wife (Henstridge), and the complications keep piling up from there. Broad black comedy gets a lot of mileage out of the juxtaposition between Willis’ relaxed bemusement masking coiled-snake menace and Perry’s frantic neuroticism masking nothing at all, as well as a disarming turn from Peet as Perry’s co-worker who gets excited by the prospect of contract killing. A little too busy for its own good, with too much time afforded Arquette and her cartoonish French-Canadian accent, but the energy is infectious enough to stick with it for more than just nine yards. Followed by a sequel: The Whole Ten Yards.

66/100