Can A Blog Change Its Name?: Can't Rightly Imply Talent Is Crucial

I love me some Christian Slater. I know. I can't explain it. He's not the greatest actor in the world (though he's probably better than you think if you haven't seen “He Was A Quiet Man”). He doesn't star in amazing movies. And I'm not gay. There's just something about him. He's able to project his charisma off the screen in a fashion few other actors can. He can even make otherwise unbearable films (such as “The Wizard” and “Alone In The Dark”) tolerable. And while I first learned about him through his gosh-darn-it-at-least-he's-trying British-dialect-butchering performance in “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves,” he cemented his cinematic excellence in my mind via the film “Kuffs.”

“Kuffs” is an early 90's coming-of-age story about a young, hip slacker who's given guff by his elders and continually shows himself to be smarter than they are. I'm sure you're simply flabbergasted at the display of singular creativity employed there. What makes it special, though, is the presentation. The film opens with a bit of written exposition explaining that in the 1800's, the citizens of San Francisco found themselves overwhelmed with crime and so split the city into districts looked after by “Patrol Specials,” essentially a private police force. Christian Slater portrays the eponymous George Kuffs, the underachieving younger brother of Brad Kuffs (played by Bruce Boxleitner), a district owner and Patrol Special in San Francisco, who is gunned-down by a gangster for refusing to sell the district. George then inherits the district and, in the name of his brother, takes on the job of Patrol Special himself, despite being completely unqualified. He finds himself at odds with his staff, the Police, and his brother's killer. Hilarity ensues. Sort of.

The thing about this film is that it alternates between several drastically different tones: at times airy and humorous, other times deadly serious, and occasionally soft and romantic; but it manages these tone shifts extremely well. It maintains a consistency of narrative where none of the elements feel out of place. I credit this chiefly to Christian Slater. He lets us believe he can be the same character in each of these situations without losing credulity in all the others, mainly through his talking directly to the camera. While so many of the actions Kuffs takes could easily cause us to recoil or write him off, his casual breaking of the fourth wall allows Slater's charisma to draw us in and makes us feel part of his life. We understand his decisions, stupid though they may often be, and, in spite of them, we root for him to win. Throw in a catchy score by Harold Faltermeyer, excellent acting by all the other players (including Milla Jovovich and Tony Goldwyn), and a surprisingly well-constructed script and you've got a movie that I just adore.