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| Columbia Films | Release Date: October 21, 1988 |
Starring:
Dan Conway, Don Ameche, Gail Silver, J.J. Johnston, Jack Wallace, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum, Ricky Jay, Robert Prosky, Willo Hausman
Summary:
Shoe-shiner Gino is hired to take the rap for a mafia murder. Two-bit gangster Jerry watches over Gino and gives him a weekend to remember.
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The film is mostly light and funny, but it also has a wistful ending that lingers in the mind. Both lead actors are sensational. [21 Oct 1988, p.A]
The performances are pristine in their theatricality, Raul Ruiz Anchia's lighting is neo-classical in its velvety richness, and the script (by Mamet and Shel Silverstein) is unfailingly intricate and consistent, for all its flamboyant use of coincidence. But it is the art of Don Ameche's courtly, charismatic characterization that lifts Things Change above the level of a crafty, enjoyable stunt.
Things Change is David Mamet's Moonstruck. It is not a romance, but it is a movie made with a similar giddiness as it celebrates the redemptive powers of friendship. Bravissimo! [21 Oct 1988, p.E1]
Most of the time Things Change makes you marvel at how fresh a mob comedy can seem in the right hands. [21 Oct 1988, p.49]
There's nothing to look at except Gino and Jerry's mummified skits, which are directed at a deliberate and unvarying pace. Mamet piles on improbabilities in a matter-of-fact style; flatness of performance seems to be part of the point. This minimalist approach--it suggests a knowingness--takes the fun out of hokum. The result is like a Frank Capra--Damon Runyon comic fairy tale of the 30s in slow motion.
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