--- title: "The Mexican" year: 2001 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-mexican" fi1m_score: 56 critics_score: 52 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-16T23:35:52.649707+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T23:35:53.211418+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Mexican (2001) Directed by Gore Verbinski · 2h 03m · MPA R · Action, Comedy, Crime, Romance **Fi1m score: 56** · Critics 52 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in one film, and the best thing in it is the man who kidnaps her > Gore Verbinski keeps his two stars apart for most of the picture, and the half with James Gandolfini in it is the one worth watching. The rest is Brad Pitt losing a pistol in the dust, and it outlasts the joke. ## Synopsis Jerry (Brad Pitt) runs errands for a Los Angeles crime outfit, badly. He owes the jailed boss Margolese (Gene Hackman), and Margolese’s lieutenant Nayman (Bob Balaban) offers one last job to clear the debt: go to Mexico and bring back an antique pistol known as the Mexican, said to carry a curse. His girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts) wants him out of the business and on the road to Las Vegas with her; when he takes the job, she leaves alone. Jerry finds the pistol in a dusty town and loses it at once. Samantha, meanwhile, is taken in Las Vegas by Leroy (James Gandolfini), a hit man who means to hold her until the gun comes home. ## Review *The Mexican* puts Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts on the same poster and then keeps them in different countries for most of its 123 minutes. J. H. Wyman’s script is built on that separation. Jerry (Pitt) is sent south to fetch a pistol; Samantha (Roberts) is on her way to Las Vegas when Leroy (James Gandolfini) puts her in his car and keeps her there. Gore Verbinski cuts between the two, one a slapstick errand and the other a long conversation, and only one of them is a film we wanted to keep watching. It is the conversation. Leroy is a professional who takes Samantha’s romantic troubles more seriously than she does, and Gandolfini plays him as a large, patient man who listens with his whole face. Roberts stops performing brightness, which she does in most of her comedies, and simply argues with him, in a diner, in a motel, in the front seat of a car, about whether a relationship that has stopped working is worth finishing. We were moved by a scene in the motel where Leroy tells her something about his own life, quietly, and then gives her advice he has no business giving. It is a better love story than the one the film is nominally telling, and it is between two people who are not in love. The Mexican half is where the running time goes. Jerry arrives, is handed the pistol, and loses it at once: a car thief (Richard Coca) drives off with it while he is standing in the road, and the rest of his story is a sequence of attempts to get it back, involving a donkey, a dog and several people who shoot at him. Pitt plays it twitchy, all shrugs and half-finished sentences, and for a while it is likeable. By the fourth mishap we were checking how much of him was left, and there was a great deal. The strand has no shape. Things happen to Jerry, then other things do, and the pistol changes hands about once every ten minutes. It looks good while it does. Dariusz Wolski shoots the Mexican scenes in a hard yellow light that turns the plaster to bone and the sky nearly white, and Cecilia Montiel’s town of tin roofs, painted shutters and a single bar looks lived in rather than dressed. Colleen Atwood keeps Samantha in the same rumpled clothes for days, which is right for a woman who left in a hurry. Alan Silvestri brings in trumpets and a Spanish guitar and lets them wander. The legend of the pistol arrives in sepia flashbacks, the picture jittering as if run through an old projector, and the story changes each time someone tells it. Craig Wood drops these in more than once, and each time the film stops dead while a wedding goes wrong. The two halves are meant to argue with each other: he learns something about commitment in the dust while she learns something about it in the car. They do not. When the film finally puts its stars back in the same frame it has less than half an hour left and a plot to settle, and it settles it with Gene Hackman, who appears late as Margolese and is given a good deal to explain. J.K. Simmons turns up as Ted, another emissary with a gun, and Bob Balaban’s Nayman is sweatily good in his few scenes. None of them is on screen long enough to matter. Verbinski’s first film, *Mouse Hunt*, from 1997, was a cartoon with people in it, and two years after this he would make *Pirates of the Caribbean*. Here he is trying for something in between, a caper that becomes a Western that becomes a talk about love, and the joins show. The film has been talked up in some quarters since as a misunderstood oddity. We would not go that far. It is an ordinary film with one extraordinary supporting performance in it. See it for Gandolfini and Roberts, and be honest with yourself about the rest. At home the Mexican half is easier to forgive, because you can get up and make tea during the donkey. The 15 certificate covers a fair amount of blood and a lot of swearing, most of it Pitt’s. *Fi1m score 56, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split almost down the middle, and the one thing nearly everyone agrees on is James Gandolfini. Whatever critics think of the film around him, his weepy, vulnerable hit man is repeatedly named the best thing in it, and several say the picture only comes alive once he arrives and starts talking to Roberts. Those who like it call it a shaggy-dog story: slight, whimsical, with tangy dialogue and a split structure that keeps things moving. The reservations gather around the two stars. Many critics find Pitt and Roberts do not mesh, and several describe the film as veering between goofy violence and solemnity without settling on a tone. The spread is wide, from cheerful curio to outright dud. The Guardian is the odd one out in finding even the Gandolfini subplot mishandled, while Collider, writing long after release, argues the film is a subversive arthouse piece that deserves a cult reappraisal. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): The critic views the film as an eclectic, anything-goes shaggy-dog story with charm in its split structure and quirky elements. Gandolfini is highlighted as the best asset for his human and vulnerable portrayal of the hit man. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-mexican-7433295.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's focus on the quirky relationship between Samantha and the hit man Leroy rather than the Pitt-Roberts pairing, finding it special and witty. He singles out the psychobabble dialogues and Gandolfini's character for bringing depth and surprises. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-mexican-2001) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a slight but enjoyable whimsical shaggy-dog story with more star power than substance, ricocheting between goofy violence and endearing moments. It singles out Gandolfini's touching and genuine supporting turn as the most authentic element. [Read](https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/the-mexican-1200466553/) - **Time Out**, TCh (65/100, inferred): This hokey-jokey comic thriller doesn't add up to much but remains an engaging curio. The parallel storylines buzz with smart zigzags and tangy dialogue, though extraneous flashbacks mire the plot somewhat. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-mexican) - **The AV Club**, Nathan Rabin (55/100, inferred): The film is uneven and often slack when focused on Pitt's character, but improves significantly with the arrival of Gandolfini, whose rapport with Roberts provides the film's strongest and most emotionally resonant moments. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-mexican-1798192607) - **The New York Times** (50/100, inferred): The review finds the film only half as funny as it should be but notes it avoids being too churlish given the surrounding comic environment. It highlights James Gandolfini's portrayal of the weepy hit man Leroy as the casting coup. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/movies/film-review-sounds-like-tony-soprano-but-just-a-tad-weepier.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (40/100, inferred): The review notes the film's misdirection and desire to be hip and offbeat but concludes it cannot pull it off despite the stars' efforts. It praises the best performance coming from a supporting player rather than the leads. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-02-ca-32062-story.html) - **Empire**, Colin Kennedy (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a patchy genre piece that fails to live up to its ambitions as a star vehicle. Gandolfini is singled out for praise as the standout performer who brings natural drama to his scenes. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mexican-review/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an implausible comedy-thriller that fails due to poor chemistry between Pitt and Roberts and weak performances. He singles out the mishandled subplot involving Gandolfini's character as particularly disappointing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/apr/27/culture.peterbradshaw) - **The New Yorker** (30/100, inferred): The critic calls the romantic comedy a dud with Pitt and Roberts not meshing, criticizing the film's hapless veering between facetiousness and solemnity. Pitt's jittery performance is singled out as uncentered and indulgent to watch. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/03/12/a-gun-in-the-sun) - **Collider**, Liam Gaughan (75/100, inferred): The critic argues that despite its initial negative reviews, The Mexican is an unusual, subversive arthouse film rather than a standard thriller, deserving a cult reappraisal for its quirky humor, profound moments, and western influences. [Read](https://collider.com/gore-verbinski-the-mexican-brad-pitt-julia-roberts/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the central couple's chemistry unconvincing and the film tonally uneven, with Pitt and Roberts failing to generate sparks while Gandolfini steals scenes. Verbinski treats the caper as a light romp but lacks the skill of Jonathan Demme in the genre. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-mexican-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Details - **Director:** Gore Verbinski - **Director:** Gore Verbinski - **Writer:** J. H. Wyman - **Cinematography:** Dariusz Wolski - **Editor:** Craig Wood - **Music:** Alan Silvestri - **Production design:** Cecilia Montiel - **Costume design:** Colleen Atwood - **Producer:** John Baldecchi, Lawrence Bender - **Cast:** Brad Pitt as Jerry; Julia Roberts as Samantha; James Gandolfini as Leroy; J.K. Simmons as Ted; Bob Balaban as Nayman; Sherman Augustus as Well Dressed Black Man; Michael Cerveris as Frank; Gene Hackman as Margolese - **Runtime:** 2h 03m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 1 March 2001 - **Genres:** Action, Comedy, Crime, Romance - **Budget:** $57 million - **Box office:** $148 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyujCIHTiHc ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AE, AR, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DK, EE, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Midnight Run* (1988), Fi1m 88: A captor and his captive talk their way across America, and it works — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/midnight-run.md) - *Out of Sight* (1998), Fi1m 86: A crime caper that trusts two people talking in a boot to carry it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/out-of-sight.md) - *In Bruges* (2008), Fi1m 83: Hit men with feelings, a foreign town, and a script that knows where it is going — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-bruges.md) - *Y tu mamá también* (2001), Fi1m 87: Mexico by road in the same year, shot with far more curiosity about the place — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/y-tu-mama-tambien.md) - *Grosse Pointe Blank* (1997), Fi1m 55: A killer with a conscience and a love life, played straight and funny — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/grosse-pointe-blank.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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