Review of Mikey and Nicky (1976) by Sean N — 13 May 2009

The title of this film could easily be changed to and work as good if it were called 'Two guys hanging out'. So what better duo than Peter Falk and John Cassavetes? For reasons unexplained Cassavetes has a hit placed on him by his mob boss.

He calls for his lifelong best friend Mikey (Falk) and from there, the very beginning of the film, it's mostly them walking and talking around rain drenched city blocks after hours. Through all of this the core of the movie is the exploration of the relationship between these two characters.

They show their faults and their kindness to each other but ultimately it leads to reveal the true nature of their friendship which unfortunately is not so good. There's also a moral dilemma with Mikey that follows him through the film since he's suppose to set up Nicky for his execution.

A physical representation may be Ned Beatty's hired hitman who attempts to catch them. But when Falk finally makes up his mind it takes a lot of thought from the viewer to figure out if it was the right thing.

This is an underrated little masterpiece from the 70's with a perfect cast. It's a layered thinking man's story and a hang out movie all at once.