By Eric Rosenberg
Story
Security guard Trixie Zurbo (Watson), an unsophisticated working stiff
who never met a metaphor she couldn’t mix or a bit of English syntax she
couldn’t massacre, gets her first shot at real detective work when
assigned to go undercover at a casino. On the lookout for pickpockets,
she stumbles into a romance with a smooth heartbreaker (Dermot Mulroney)
and a potentially fatal sex scandal involving a sleazy local politician
(Nick Nolte).
Acting
Fearless British thespian Watson ("Hilary and Jackie") pours it on thick
as the slow-witted but heroically persistent protagonist, and the
results can be tears-in-your-eyes funny. Squinting as she tries to wrap
her mind around complex concepts, tossing out a steady stream of
malaprops ("I’m gonna get ’em by hook or by ladder"), she finds a way to
score with virtually every moment onscreen. A 10-minute dialogue scene
in which she confronts Nolte’s anecdote-spouting state senator, neither
having the slightest idea what the other is saying, is pure gold. The
star also gets able support from low-key charmer Mulroney ("My Best
Friend’s Wedding") and Nathan Lane, perfectly cast as a mentoring lounge
performer.
Direction
The constraints of the detective genre rein in the usual artsy
self-indulgences of writer director Alan Rudolph ("Afterglow"), and as a
result "Trixie" might be his most accessible film to date. Rudolph shows
little interest in the standard mystery plot, a collection of
unsurprising twists providing the flimsiest of excuses to explore his
sharply defined characters. The narrative loses steam when he’s forced
to deal with wrapping things up in the last section, but by then it’s
too late for the audience to back out -- Trixie has stolen our hearts.