Midnight Run (1988)

Directed and produced by Martin Brest

Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro) is a bounty hunter specializing in capturing prisoners who have jumped bail. He has five days to bring in Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin), a former Mob accountant who stole millions from a gangster to give to charity. A seemingly easy assignment – a ‘midnight run’ – turns into a frantic ordeal as the FBI, a rival bounty hunter and the Mafia join the cross-country chase, with not all of them caring if Jack or Jonathan survive.

These days, after nearly sixty years in the cinema, Robert De Niro in a comedy is not a strange thing. But Midnight Run was his first (The King of Comedy was a comedy only in the blackest of definitions), and remains his best. Teaming the seemingly unfunny tough-guy actor with Grodin was an inspiration. De Niro’s oft-seen screen persona of a volcano ready to explode is wonderfully contrasted with Grodin’s calculated ability to annoy. This odd combination works.

De Niro is playing a good man here; yes, embittered by betrayals by former colleagues, by his ex-wife (Wendy Phillips) and by his bail-bondsman contractor (Joe Pantoliano), but trying his best to do right by his own principles. For Grodin’s part, his performances were described by an admiring critic as being given as if he were trying not to wake someone sleeping in the next room. Mardukas is irritating, and this sort of character frequently is far too annoying for me to stomach. But viewers recognise that Jack Walsh needs irritation. He needs prodding to do better, to help himself; viewers also see that, in his own infuriating manner, Mardukas is trying to do that. (He accurately diagnoses Jack’s two forms of expression – silence and rage – as the cause of his ulcer.) The fact is that the two characters are both good guys who have strangely similar morals.

Midnight Run is not just De Niro and Grodin, however. John Ashton as Walsh’s rival, Dorfler; Yaphet Kotto as the FBI officer hunting Mardukas; Pantoliano, and Dennis Farina as the gangster, all add to the film. What they add, interestingly, is an increasing panicky energy. Though the two main characters argue and fight, they actually remain relatively calm in the storm that they are creating. The subsidiary characters throw in a frantic element that builds slowly.

George Gallo wrote the script. His other movie work, despite being both hits and bombs, has not stood out, and it may be telling that Grodin improvised many of his lines. And since Grodin improvised much of his dialogue with De Niro, the latter must have improvised his responses. I suspect that their spontaneous interaction provided most of the fun to be heard, and not Gallo’s words. (Anyone who has seen Grodin’s pseudo-confrontational appearances on talk shows, especially those hosted by David Letterman, would not be surprised at his ad-libbing.) It should be noted, however, that Grodin himself liked the original script very much.

The direction by Brest is slow and exhilarating at the right spots. There is plenty of action – punches, shoot-out, car-chases – and all well-done. Even the traditional buddy-movie scene of men in a car screaming in unison at what they are about to collide with (something Martin Short said defined the genre) is funny, with Mardukas castigating the bounty-hunting skills of both Walsh and Dorfler. But there are scenes as well of quiet friendship developing, and the finale is a fine moment of respect and admiration between the two principals.

Whoever suggested to De Niro that he should take Walsh’s rôle in Midnight Run should have received a raise. It fits perfectly with his usual tough-guy parts, but showed what else he could do. His pairing with Grodin was an strange one, but successful. They, and pretty much every other element, in Midnight Run succeed, and make one of the most winning of adventure-comedies.

(Readers may note that in the initial synopsis above, I spelled De Niro’s name as one word; actors’ names in my synopses are based on the movie’s credits, and Midnight Run was the last of De Niro’s work that featured his name that way. The rest of the review uses his name as it now is.)