Dustin Hoffman is a good actor, but he makes a terrible villain. In Robert Benton's "Billy Bathgate," Hoffman plays notorious mobster Dutch Schultz. Dutch isn't having a good time. The Feds want him for income evasion, and Dutch is desperate to get himself cleared. Nothing Dutch does can save his bacon. He is living on borrowed time even as he struggles to set things right. The Depression-Era epic is based on E. L. Doctorow's bestseller, and the action is told from the perspective of a young man, the eponymous Billy (Loren Dean) who goes from being a street juggler to one of Schultz's inner circle. Of course, Schultz is doomed from the outset and nobody, not even his closest associate Otto Berman (Steven Hill) can get him out of the fix that he is in. Benton doesn't so much wear out our patience as he deflates our expectation. Clearly, Hoffman is miscast and we never warm up to him as a ruthless gangster. He has some fiery moments where he shoots one henchman in the mouth at point blank range. Earlier, he sentenced another henchman, Bo Weinberg (Bruce Willis of "Die Hard") to death for double-crossing him. Basically, Dutch is not a sympathetic character so we have little reason to care about his fate. Furthermore, he isn't the kind of monster that makes us sit back and admire his nerve and verve. He is a thug with an instinct to kill. It doesn't help matters that Benton dispenses with any history of any of the characters. You have got to know the gangland universe of the 1930s to recognize not only Dutch but also the other guy Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci) who impersonates the urbane but dangerous Luciano. The film opens with Bo getting a big send-off courtesy of Dutch. The best part of "Billy Bathgate" is this opener that shows Bo with his feet in cement waiting to be deposited in the river. Our hero seals Bo's fate because he brings Dutch a poker chip from the casino that he was at plotting Dutch's downfall. Nobody but Billy is worth worrying about, but as the late critic Roger Ebert observed in his review, Billy is so enigmatic that he doesn't amount to a hill of beans. He gets himself into Dutch's gang and manages to extricate himself near the end, but he walks away as nobody that he care about. He gets out of the racket by the skin of his teeth. Nicole Kidman plays Bo's girlfriend; indeed, she is a married lady but her husband Harvey (Xander Berkeley of "Air Force One") is more interested in guys than girls. She manages to survive because she knows Luciano. Altogether, "Billy Bathgate" qualifies as an elegant potboiler, but you will remember little about it other than the cement shoes that Bruce Willis wears. The biggest surprises—if they are surprising for you—is Dustin Hoffman behaving in such a murderous manner. Steve Buscemi has a supporting role as one of Dutch's sharp-shooting gunsels, and a young Moira Kelly is on hand as a street girl in the Bronx. Nicole Kidman appears nude in a skinny dipping scene where she shows all briefly. Lensed in North Carolina and Saratoga Springs, New York.
Review of Billy Bathgate
