Review: The Way of the Gun

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Benicio del Toro, Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Scott Wilson

Rating: [3/5]

Biting off more than one can chew explains the story of many individuals who get themselves in a situation and do not fully comprehend exactly what it all entails. It comes from a mix of either naivete or arrogance that puts them in a place of danger. In Way of the Gun, we get a mix of both in the way we follow these two characters in their plot to achieve their next big score and it all ends in ways one would expect when trying to extort a very dangerous individual. 

Mostly getting by through petty crime, Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro) and Parker (Ryan Phillippe) learn through some eavesdropping of an opportunity to hit a big score. They decide to kidnap and hold for ransom the pregnant surrogate of a money launderer for the hefty price tag of $15 million. As anticipated, they run into some interference on the way, which includes an unwilling captive. 

Seeing the early works of filmmakers typically displays the beginnings of what amounts to greater ones down the line. Whether or not that first stab necessarily works is another question. This go-around we have Christopher McQuarrie, who made a name for himself early on in his career for penning The Usual Suspects sought the opportunity to prove himself as a director in addition to his writing, which led to this film. Now, we know he would later go on to do better projects such as his collaborations with Tom Cruise in the “Mission: Impossible” films but we receive something somewhat entertaining in his debut. 

In this attempt, we certainly see a film trying to stand out and have an attitude in the way it approaches the story of these two men trying to get a nice payday. They do not present themselves as squeaky-clean protagonists to follow given they kidnap a pregnant woman. It does not necessarily matter that she’s carrying the child of an evil man, she’s but an innocent bystander amongst all of the nonsense going on here. Therefore, we have a story of bad guys essentially trying to get money from each other making this quite the circumstance in trying to find who to root for here. 

The ultimate highlight of the film, unexpectedly, comes from McQuarrie’s screenplay and producing some fun snappy bits of dialogue. In particular, the scene at the sperm donation location where they learn about the possibility of this score highlights what makes McQuarrie a fun writer as it exemplifies the nature of these characters right from the get-go and makes all further developments understandable to a degree. In these moments, the film shines and produces its best moments. Once it gets into its main plot it does begin to struggle a bit as these characters only have so much steam ahead of them before they blur the line and jump into the category of being quite grating. This certainly transpires as we get into the second and third acts where the film begins to lose some steam but it provides an overall positive experience. 

Leading the way in this film we have a good duo of performances given by Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro. They both know what they have signed up for in this film and manage to slip right into what gets asked of them. Benicio del Toro already had experience in bringing McQuarrie’s words to life as they teamed up in the aforementioned 1999 film and in this film, he makes the most of it with what it means to operate as a Longbaugh. We can always count on him to deliver when called upon. 

A bit slightly up certainly showing the best was yet to come for Christopher McQuarrie, The Way of the Gun serves as a decent directorial debut. He marries his entertaining dialogue with some fun scenes that display the talent of the two men we follow on this perilous journey. They truly go through it in order to cash in and the journey there comes with many bullets being sprayed and many characters continually warning them to turn back and stop. It works for the most part even with its many rough spots throughout its rather elongated runtime.