Charlie (John Cusack) is a mob lawyer. In Wichita. I just don't even know where to go from there. Apparently there is enough business to keep him busy.
From what I can tell, it is generated mostly by strip clubs. But on this night (which happens to be Christmas Eve), Charlie has joined forces with Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) to steal something over $2 million from the big boss, Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid).
Throughout the night, Charlie drives about Wichita (during an ice storm, no less), trying to keep in touch with Vic, so that he doesn't get shut out of the money. He also meets up with an interesting assortment of characters, including Pete (Oliver Platt) the current husband of his ex-wife, who has, shall we say, a colorful way of living.
Charlie also has a thing for the manager of one of the strip clubs, Renata (Connie Nielsen), though the interesting part of that relationship isn't revealed until the very end.
There are certainly some interesting moments of dialogue in the film, but they are few and far between - a bit of a shame, because the movie is so short. This movie holds the distinction of being one of the shorter live-action films I've ever seen, in fact, yet for all that lack of length, it takes absolutely forever to end. Perhaps it was the setting. The cold may have just played tricks on my mind and slowed everything down, but it truly seemed that this movie would never end.
Though the story isn't bad, it could have been used a bit better or put together differently. It winds up in a decent way, it just takes way too long to get there. A better use of the acting resources that it had on hand would have been nicer (who has Randy Quaid on staff on uses him so little?).
Rated R for violence, language and sexuality/nudity.
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