Mousehunt (1997)

What a pleasant comedy! Here's a movie that brings back a subject which was specific to the cartoons from the forties and fifties: the game of the cat and the mouse. Here, there's a real mouse and the cat is epitomized by the Schmuntz brothers who wish to get rid of her in order to sell an old but expensive house. The more the film advances, the more the traps prepared by Lars and Ernie Schmuntz are worked out: it begins with the simple, trivial trap: the mousetrap and it ends with the appearance of the mouse-exterminator ( an unexpected and irresistible Christopher Walken). In short, what it seems to be a child's play at the beginning of the movie, ends up becoming a merciless fight in which there'll be no winner, no loser... Gore Verbinski adopted an inventive and clever making and he rightly choose his actors. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans form an ideal duo, not very far from the legendary Laurel and Hardy. They've got a different personality but are united to kill this mouse. Moreover, the movie doesn't only focus on this "mouse hunt" but also on the Schmuntz brothers' efforts to earn money in order to save their father's string factory ( a world without string is chaos...). Let's add some hilarious and efficient gags ; the movie pays a tribute to Tex Avery. Dialogs that kick the bull's eye and some cues are powerful such as: "in this mouse's mind, you are the intruders" says Walken to the Schmuntz brothers. At last, the real mouse is, of course, a little pest (she's even compared to Hitler with a tail) but in parallel, Verbinski attempts to make her touching. At the end, a comedy without too many claims but efficient enough to please to a large public.