Movie Reviews

Loosies

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Written by Jonathan Jacobs

At first our thieving fiend feigns having no knowledge of who Lucy is. It later turns out he has been in love with her since their one and only glorious night together. During the course of the film glimpses are shown into their brief but life-defining night together. Being with Lucy may be the only time when Bobby is entirely truthful and when he reveals his soul to the audience. For a person with no recollection of his night spent with Lucy, it is peculiar that he carries her photo in his wallet. Bobby is a realist however, and he recognizes the cruel reality of being with Lucy while he is employed as a thief. He is paying off the last lump sum of his father's gambling debt while supporting his divorced mother Rita (Marianne Leone).

A confluence of three happenstances disrupts the rhythm of Bobby's life and creates a future worth living in. The first is his accidental pickpocketing of a police officer's badge (the very grumpy Michael Madsen). The lieutenant's captain (William Forsythe) finds this embarrassing and demands the return of his manhood. Lieutenant Sullivan begins a manhunt for the thief. The second is Bobby's confrontation with a pregnant Lucy. This begins altering his trajectory and changing his thoughts about being a criminal. The third whammy is his mother's bombshell news that she is engaged to Carl (Joe Pantoliano a.k.a. Ralph from The Sopranos). This news in particular hurts Bobby because he has in a sense wasted his entire youth protecting her from his father's debts.

Slowly but surely Bobby begins wooing Lucy. The path to parenthood is a perilous one indeed. While devoting himself to her he is being chased by the police, abandoned by his mother, and intimidated by his crime boss Jax (Vincent Gallo). Weaving his way through all of this traffic is well worth it because he loved Lucy before she ever reemerged in his life. Her pregnancy was almost like a gift because it meant he would have a chance to live a normal life and be with the woman of his dreams.

Peter Facinelli has a talent for drawing audiences in. His performances more than anything are remarkable for their advent of sweetness and unadulterated honesty. We feel comfortable with Facinelli in our living room and would gladly invite him in for Tea and crumpets were we British. Jaimie Alexander is neither incredibly gorgeous nor is she the greatest actress since Audrey Hepburn but that is perfectly alright. She is very good and very attractive. She plays Lucy like a great guitar tune. After the agony of Bobby's career mistakes and Lucy's often cruel indecision, by the end of Loosies we come to want the couple to make it by hook or by crook. They share a common decency and their intimacy is brilliantly raw. Though a Loosies part two would invariably suck worse than the Halloween sequels, we can enjoy the one and only original for years to come.  

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