The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Scrappy, long on-the-shelf film by director James Bridges concerns bank-teller Debra Winger's obsession over finding out what happened to a guy she was dating, who has mysteriously vanished. Bridges put this together with Winger after their partnership on "Urban Cowboy", but it was a career low-point for both. Many trips to the editing room couldn't salvage it (causing one to wonder, did it have its soul removed or was there never a soul to begin with?). If you can get through the muddled introductions, Paul Winfield manages a thoughtful performance as a gay music executive, and Winger does well with a very sketchy role. Joe Jackson performs three forgettable songs (his soundtrack album was already out and gathering dust by the time this picture finally arrived in theaters). *1/2 from ****

This movie is compelling because the character of Betty is so innocent about what is going on in this murky tennis coach. It makes it easy to see how a normal person could find themselves in way over their heads without knowing it. The kitchen scene with the pal of Mike's who manages to get away from the bad guys is gut wrenching. Debra Winger has never gotten the breaks that she richly is due. I feel that it is compelling that the late Bette Davis stated that of the new actresses that Ms Winger was the most like her and I don't think that she was merely referring to their bad press.

For some inexplicable reason, critics find this film hard to follow. Actually, it's very coherent and surprisingly powerful. Debra Winger plays a bank employee who falls for her tennis coach, a young stud named Mike. When Mike is brutally murdered by drug dealers, Winger's character, Betty, is drawn into the L.A. underworld in her quest to find out why he was killed. What makes this film so great is its quiet realism. Most latter day noirs suffer from over-the-top plotting, mega-violence, and cartoonish effects. Moving by indirection and inference, MIKE'S MURDER skirts a hellish world rather than diving in, a narrative strategy that makes it eerily believable and deeply disturbing. Check it out.

Last night, Debra Winger spoke about this film at UCLA. The campus theatre that shows films to the general public was renamed the James Bridges Theatre in honor of the writer and director of Mike's Murder. Debra said that Bridges was an actor's director. The scene in the film where Debra's character checks her phone messages and we hear a voice say it's mom-that was Debra's real life mother Ruth-Debra didn't know she would hear that voice until the moment the scene was shot!That example really highlights the strength of the film, the acting. All of the performances are first-rate. I was touched by Debra's quiet strength in the face of some sad and even bizarre discoveries by her character about her dead lover. A very underrated film!