The Mighty Quinn (1989)

This is a movie I had never, ever heard of: The Mighty Quinn (1989). It's apparently a murder mystery featuring Denzel Washington fairy early in his career, just before his big breaks to stardom. 

Apparently the late Roger Ebert praised this movie to the high heavens and called it one of the best films of 1989. Well, I saw it, and it isn't. It's interesting, but not in the same league as Do the Right Thing, My Left Foot, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Say Anything, et al. Ebert's main points in the brief one paragraph synopsis I read were that (1) it was fun and (2) it was underlooked. Well, OK. Sure. I'm also fun and underlooked, and I'm not a best film of 1989 either. 

Nevertheless, it is better than it should be considering that almost no one has heard of it. Denzel is Xavier, a police chief of a town in Jamaica, and has a really, really good accent throughout. Seriously good. He could teach Jamaican accents. 

There is a murder of a very important, rich man on the island, and a lot of money is apparently missing. Denzel (for some reason I prefer calling him by his real name than his character) is tasked with finding his childhood friend Maubee, who is the last person seen in the vicinity - in fact, who Denzel stopped for speeding/reckless driving just moments after the murder, without realizing he was a suspect. Maubee goes to ground, Denzel searches for him, and meanwhile high political pressure begins to bear on him from above - where is the money? Why can't you find the money? Who has the money? Where is Maubee? WHO is Maubee? 

Whenever Denzel digs deep into the crime, he is chastised and threatened and cajoled, etc. The mystery deepens as the movie progresses, but I won't give anything away in case you should someday catch this on TV. But there are several clever things going on that all come together near the end. 

The movie is dripping in atmosphere - vibrant sun, interesting characters with seemingly full lives of their own (my favorite was Esther Rolle as a witch who laughs and laughs and laughs when she tricks Denzel into opening a wicker basket full of snakes). There is also a lot of music in the movie, much of it reggae, much of it very good, including a version of the title song (written by Bob Dylan). 

I liked this movie, although I didn't love it. The pacing was too elastic - it felt like the tension would suddenly appear for no reason and then vanish again. There were one or two subplots that, although they were interesting, distracted me from something that felt more important. The camera work was also awkward - although there were a couple interesting shots where a character would seemingly look at the camera, only for a reveal that they were looking at another character just off camera. A few surprises, but nothing shattering. 

It was directed by Carl Schenkel, who is German and who made nothing I have heard of before or since. The movie grossed $4.5 mil, which feels about right, and was probably good for the budget. 

Worth catching if you find it somewhere.