The Whole Nine Yards (film)

The Whole Nine Yards
"The Whole Nine Yards" promotional movie poster
Directed by	Jonathan Lynn
Written by	Mitchell Kapner
Starring	Matthew Perry Bruce Willis Amanda Peet Natasha Henstridge Michael Clarke Duncan Kevin Pollak Rosanna Arquette Harland Williams
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	18 February, 2000
Running time	98 min
Language	English
Budget	$24,000,000

The Whole Nine Yards is a 2000 black comedy starring Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis, Amanda Peet, Natasha Henstridge, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kevin Pollak and Rosanna Arquette.

Plot

Nicholas 'Oz' Oseransky (Perry) is a depressed, slightly neurotic American dentist working and living in Montreal, Quebec. His wife (Arquette) hates him while admitting "everyone seems to like him" and wants him dead, as does his mother-in-law. Tired of living with Oz's substantial business debt from a previous practice and Oz himself, she plans to kill him to pay off his debt and pocket the rest with her mother. This debt however was accrued by her father, Oz's practice partner in Illinois, when he embezzled an unknown sum of money to repeatedly pay off an underaged male patient who caught him in the act of molestation but also loans against the practice which he promptly spent in Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City before committing suicide and leaving Oz with the bill. At work, Oz has made friends with his receptionist, Jill (Peet), who urges him to get away from his wife who she believes is "not a good person", a phrase repeated later by Jimmy Tudeski.

Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Willis), a hitman, moves in next door under the assumed name of "Jimmy Jones." Having testified against the Gogolak family, a very dangerous family of mobsters, Jimmy is hiding out there in Canada. Jimmy immediately befriends Oz, finding him hilariously jumpy, and the two experience a very tense ride through the city, as Oz has realized who Jimmy is. Oz's wife presses him to travel to Chicago, where he is to meet up with Janni Gogolak and collect a finder's fee. Oz goes to his hotel room to find another notorious hitman in his room, and he proceeds to beat Oz up until Oz admits he knows where Jimmy is. When Oz admits he might know where Jimmy is the hitman takes him to meet Janni. It is at this meeting he first encounters Jimmy's wife, for whom Oz immediately harbors an attraction. Meanwhile, Oz's wife approaches Jimmy, explaining where her husband is located and what he's doing, in a blatant attempt to get Oz in trouble. Things intensify from there.

A sequel entitled The Whole Ten Yards was released on April 9, 2004.

Trivia

• "The Whole Nine Yards" grossed $57,262,492 in US Box office.
• The name comes from the expression "The Whole Nine Yards".
• Matthew Perry famously starred with Rosanna Arquette's sister-in-law, Courtney Cox, in Friends.

References

• The Whole Nine Yards at IMDb