TAXMAN

Every year, it seems, there are one or two genre movies that don’t get the publicity that the big-budget movies get, yet are just as good as practically anything else released. Several years ago, one of those movies was a nifty little comedy-thriller titled THE GUN IN BETTY LOU’S HANDBAG. In 1999, TAXMAN is one of those movies. Although a pretty decent thriller, TAXMAN had no huge studio behind it. Nor did it have any big-name stars. The hero, in fact, is played by Joe Pantoliano, one of Tommy Lee Nelson’s sidekicks in THE FUGITIVE. Audiences may also recognize Pantoliano as John Malkovich’s American sidekick in Steven Spielberg’s underrated EMPIRE OF THE SUN.

In TAXMAN, Pantoliano stars as Al Benjamin, a Jewish investigator who works for the state tax department in New York City. Al starts investigating a tax dodge used by a group of Russian mobsters who are buying up independent gasoline stations. The mobsters kill six men in one station and wound the Russian-American owner of some other stations. An off-duty Puerto Rican cop named Joe Romeo helps Al approach the wounded owner, Andre Rubakov. Michael Chiklis, the star of the canceled TV series THE COMMISH, plays Andre. Andre is a lovable bear of a man who makes Al and Joe come to his beautiful daughter’s wedding before giving them any useful clues.

Eventually, Al and Joe find out that the unknown, mysterious leader of the Russian mobsters is giving half his profits from the tax dodge to a large oil company. No prosecutors are interested in their investigation until one of them, a young black prosecutor played by Robert Townsend, learns about this connection. When their investigation turns up the tuna company fronting for the lead mobster, it puts Andre in further danger, including his daughter and her young sister. Al, Joe and the prosecutor must race the clock to find and arrest the head criminal before he leaves the country.

TAXMAN is an exciting, character-driven thriller. Despite its use of strong foul language, the movie focuses on the good moral qualities in Al’s character. The movie makes a point of the fact that Al is a married man who refuses to cheat on his wife. He’s never even tempted by Andre’s beautiful daughter though, like everyone else, he is impressed by her beauty. Al also is a persistent, tough investigator who won’t take bribes. When offered one huge bribe at a climactic moment, he admits that he could use that kind of money to support his wife and two kids, but says, “I think I’ll feel a lot better knowing that I was the guy who put you in jail.” Thus, Al’s goal is justice, not revenge, although at first his main goal is to make a name for himself and possibly get out of the tax department. All this gives a strong moral worldview to TAXMAN.

Strong performances from Pantoliano as Al, Wade Dominguez as Joe Romeo and Michael Chiklis as Andre help make TAXMAN an extremely entertaining movie. They and the other performers lend an important touch of believability to a somewhat far-fetched story.

Despite plenty of rough language, TAXMAN has no sex scenes or sexual nudity in it. Also, the violence is not extremely brutal or bloody, except for one assassination scene. That particular scene is meant, however, to arouse the viewer’s anger at the bad guys, who are shown to be merciless. It also heightens the sense of tragedy in the movie and increases identification with the hero’s efforts to nab the villains.