Tin Men

Year: 1987

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Levinson

Review

a movie that sucks you in from the get go. the film succeeds in a lot of different areas – of course it’s funny and has a very good, well-rounded ensemble cast, but it also captures the sales culture very well, interjects some reality (read: drama) smoothly, and juggles various storylines in a way that keeps momentum. devito and dreyfus are great together, or, rather, against each other. somehow levinson is able to keep the comedy of their adversarial relationship going whilst acknowledging the gravity of what they are doing to each other. for example, dreyfus, in an attempt to get back at devito, decides to hit on his wife and successfully woos her. after dreyfus has sex with devito’s wife he calls devito up to tell him that he “just poked” his wife. devito turns it around on dreyfus by essentially saying he’s happy that she’s finally off his back and that dreyfus can have her. perhaps it’s the acting or perhaps it’s the directing, but the scene is able to be both funny and sad at the same time – as it should be. all in all it’s a good film with a fair amount of laughs and the drama plays pretty well also.