In New Orleans, this film embodies the relationship of a young young lieutenant who makes his investigation into a murder. This young man is facing a battle with his reality in order to fulfill his dream, as his life lies in a gang and falls into trouble with a beautiful and uncompromising lawyer.
The Big Easy is as atmospheric as they come, but -- surprise! -- it's also sharp and swift. Plus, it has ample amounts of chemistry -- the steamy, sexy kind.
Set against a Cajun background, the movie is a bird's-eye view of a little-known culture operating within a totally familiar urban context. The effect is exhilarating.
After watching this sizzling crime thriller, you will be at a loss to explain why director Jim McBride failed to go on and take Hollywood by storm. At least the careers of Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin were boosted.
Eventually the film's suspense underpinnings take over its personal story, yet that tension Quaid and Barkin generate still holds. Soldily fine as actors they're also a great pair, like two golden athletes.
Quaid, a competent character actor who looks more like a leading man with each new film, has all the prize scenes in The Big Easy and he does the best he can with them. But they all seem to be castoffs from old Richard Gere movies.
The film's strength is director Jim McBride's seemingly easy way of presenting us with a New Orleans that is more malevolent and intoxicating than the tourist trap that some think it to be.
Until conventional plot contrivances begin to spoil the fun, The Big Easy is a snappy, sassy battle of the sexes in the guise of a melodrama about police corruption.
