Trixie
by Lovell Mahan-Moutaw

"I'm a private defective"
- Trixie Zurbo

Trixie is a film about its namesake, a woman with an education that didn't go past the fifth grade, a medical history of blunt head trauma from a bowling ball, and a propensity for mixed metaphors and crucified cliches. Trixie (played by the unbelievably good Emily Watson) is a security guard who wants a "case" but ends up patrolling Wal-Marts. She is sent to some back hills casino town and becomes a plain clothes guard who patrols the casino from 9 to 5 (that would be 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.). She explains her sad history, a mother who died of cancer (thus she needed to leave school in the fifth grade to care for her), a sister who moved away and started a life, a father she never knew, and an adored and missed brother who was a cop and died, presumably in the line of duty.

"Do you like guys?" - Dex Lang
"I wish someone would tell me the answer to that question so I could answer it when someone asked me it and I wouldn't have to answer it again." - Trixie Zurbo

Trixie attracts the local characters like a magnet. There is Dex (Dermot Mulroney), the local Lothario who makes Trixie look like a rocket scientist. There is Ruby (Brittany Murphy), the local slut who would walk with her legs spread-eagled if she could manage it. There is Red (Will Patton), the local lunatic. There is Kirk (Nathan Lane), the sarcastic, snide lounge singer. There is the Senator (Nick Nolte), the local slimy politician. And finally, there is Dawn, the murder victim.

"Bet high - 'cause when you bet low, you loose more when you win." - Dex Lang

Trixie fights against it, but falls for Dex. This catapults her into her first case. She faithfully follows her leads, asking the smartest questions that don't make any sense that I've ever heard. Like any good detective, she gets a little more involved than she should, but she never loses her professionalism. Bent on solving the case, she keeps her cool and puts it all together.

"She's dead, and she'll never be the same." - Trixie Zurbo

I'd never seen an Emily Watson movie before, but after watching Trixie, I want to go and rent them all. Trixie's director, Alan Rudolf (Afterglow) often uses extreme close-ups of Watson's face, capturing all of its remarkable expressions. Watson was all over Trixie - the way she spoke, moved her mouth and head, the way she walked, her expressions and voice patterns and gestures. Watson created a character who I can say without embarrassment is a comedic tour-de-force. But even as you are laughing at Trixie, she commands your respect. She's not stupid, she's just dumb. Furthermore, she's sexual in an innocent and odd way. It is indescribable. Dex, Red and the Senator all hit on her, and the Senator even confesses "I'm attracted to you but I don't know why." "I'm a woman," Trixie tells him later and she's not kidding. She is no girl, although girlish, and she is no child, although child-like. What a character.

"You half in love with me yet?" - Dex Lang

Watson carries the picture, but with help from a superb supporting cast. Although Mulroney comes off wooden in a couple of scenes, they have great chemistry and he can be very funny just as he can break your heart. Nathan Lane is a riot, but that is de rigeur (and frankly, getting a bit tiresome - he seems to play the same snide yet funny character all of the time). Nolte has a huge amount of important dialogue and some crucial scenes with Watson and Brittany Murphy, and he shines. I caught on to the mystery pretty quickly, and Rudolph gives away the culprit early, but neither the mystery nor the comedy is affected by this.

"The ace is in my hole." - Trixie Zurbo

Watson is the key - she took good writing and elevated it to something pretty amazing. I laughed out loud I don't remember how many times. Watson shines in close-up, and in sitting on the bus and putting it all together, treating us to the waves of realization running across her face, and in taking on a quartet of gang members and humiliating them without thought and with such effortless courage as to be admirable, and in taking great care to slide in to Dex's hospital bed while he "ouches" his way through her every move and saying when she gets settled, "Well, I have to go," and in saying goodbye to Dex at her door and running after his car with a kind of despair that is hard to watch.

I had a blast watching this movie and recommend it to anyone, without exception. The review posted to the IMDB database lambasted the movie but the complaints were akin to saying that Fight Club is about men fighting...he just didn't get it. Trixie isn't about a dumb woman constantly saying the wrong thing and making little sense, it's about making an assumption, and being very wrong, that someone innocent and illiterate can't behave with courage and can't command respect.

CineScene, 2000