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Movie Review: One Way Out
A couple of months ago I happened upon “One Way Out” on HBO in the middle of the night, and was surprised to see Jason Bateman with the largest role that he’s had in film as an adult. “One Way Out” was made in 2002 and went straight to video, which is why nobody, including myself before that fateful night, has ever heard of it. 
This movie’s going straight to video was, however, certainly no fault of Jason’s, and I’m writing this little review to encourage all you Bateman fans to try to find it in the wee hours of the morning (or to scour your local video stores for their lone copy—they probably have it) because he makes a really impressive showing here in a very different kind of role than we’re accustomed to.
Having said that Jason Bateman had nothing to do with this movie’s never making it to the theaters, I can tell you with 99.99 percent certainty that James Belushi had everything to do with it. Belushi is horrendously mis-cast as suave detective Harry Woltz, who’s supposed to be the best detective on the force. Woltz, however, has a secret gambling addiction, and ends up deeply indebted to the owners of the club he frequents nightly. In order to repay his debts, the owners of the club ask Woltz to help them get rid of Evans Farrow (Guylaine St-Onge), a rich, beautiful, and rather evil business partner who’s found out too much about the club’s dirty dealings; Harry is commissioned to help set up the perfect crime, to teach somebody else how to kill her and to make sure the case is dropped when it crosses his desk. If Harry doesn’t help execute the crime, his detective partner and ex-girlfriend Gwen Buckley(Angela Featherstone) will be killed. To make things more complicated, the man that Harry must train to do the job is John Farrow(Jason Bateman), Evans Farrow’s tennis instructor turned husband. John has been threatened with his life if he doesn’t participate, but he readily admits that his marriage to Evans has been fairly horrible—Evans has sex with other men in their guest house roughly three times a week, and making sure John knows about it is half of the fun. Harry outlines the plot meticulously; John will get Evans drunk, use a synthesized tape to lure her to guest house with the promise of an affair, and call Harry as soon as it’s over, letting the phone ring only once so the call isn’t recorded. Needless to say, this perfect crime isn’t nearly so perfect in execution, and Harry gets more trouble than he anticipated when his ex-girlfriend Gwen is assigned to the case—thrills and chills ensue.
Belushi, in trying to portray Woltz’ confidence and superiority as a detective and his charm with the ladies, ends up exuding a smarmy arrogance throughout the film that prevents the audience from giving two damns about him—this is probably the film’s most serious flaw.
The audience needs to care about Harry for the movie to work, but Belushi is incredibly unlikable—he inexplicably plays the harmonica whenever things aren’t going his way, wears a house of blues t-shirt in practically every scene of the film(Ok, we got it, you’re a blues brother), and repeatedly refers to John Farrow as “bitch-boy”— it’s true that the writers didn’t do anything to help the audience identify with or care about Woltz, but casting an actor better suited to the role would have definitely been a good start. Jason Bateman, however, emanates charisma and charm as John Farrow. I’m not sure how the makers of the film intended the audience to feel about Farrow—as mentioned previously, the main character repeatedly chastises Bateman’s character as “bitch-boy,” so I guess we’re supposed to see Farrow as a kind of pathetic, kept man who’s been backed into a corner---but Jason’s Farrow is extremely multi-layered, the most completely developed character in the film, and because of this, he’s the only character that I really cared about. As a man who’s been tortured by his ice-queen of a wife, Jason plays Farrow with a kind of broken quality that the audience can really relate to—he’s the one sympathetic character in the film. He’s extremely charming, he’s scared, he’s in over his head—Jason creates a character with many dimensions, and does it so well that Farrow’s part of the plot really works. Having lauded Jason’s talent, let me also say that his John Farrow may just be, as George Bluth would say, the sexiest creature I have ever laid eyes on. He’s bearded, he’s brooding, he’s wielding a gun….I respect his talent immensely, 
but I feel I should be allowed to say that he looks so very, very good. Once again, just to remind you all, it’s a straight to video movie—it’s got a straight to video leading actor, a straight to video soundtrack(which sounds kind of like somebody jamming on a casio keyboard), and, at times, a straight to video plot--- but, despite it all, I was entertained. Overall quality aside, Jason Bateman gives a truly excellent performance in this film, and if you’re a fan and interested in seeing him do something different, you should see “One Way Out” as soon as possible…..