That Jon Hamm fellow sure likes playing cops, FBI agents, journalist detectives, etc., what with his pre-fame role as Inspector Nate Basso in the Lifetime series “The Division” in the early 2000s, followed by “The Town” (2010), “Bad Times at the El Royale” (2018), “Richard Jewell” (2019), “No Sudden Move” (2021) and “Confess, Fletch” (2022).
And now here’s the awkwardly titled “Maggie Moore(s),” in which Hamm brings his low-key charm to the role of Jordan Sanders, chief of police in fictional Buckland County, New Mexico, where not one but two women named Maggie Moore have been murdered in the span of 10 days.
Very loosely inspired by a real-life case from Harris County, Texas, in 2000 but set in the present day and directed by Hamm’s old “Mad Men” running mate John Slattery (who also appeared with Hamm in “Confess, Fletch”) and with a screenplay by Paul Bernbaum (“Hollywoodland”), this is a sun-drenched, desert-town comedy noir. It reminded me of some of the post-“Pulp Fiction” knockoff films of the mid-1990s, like “Killing Zoe,” “Love and a .45” and “Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead.”
But the obvious influence has to be the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” in that “Maggie Moore(s)” features a desperate dimwit whose greedy criminal endeavors set off a series of events that result in multiple deaths and a plain-talking, small-town police chief who should not be underestimated.
This is an uneven film with a couple of glaring inconsistencies, but director Slattery has a fine sense of framing and pacing, and the top-notch cast handles the clever dialogue with aplomb.
This is not a whodunit but a “howcatchem,” an inverted detective tale in which we know the identity of the killer(s) early on, and it’s all about learning of the circumstances that led to the crime and the manner in which our hero solves the mystery.
“Maggie Moore(s)” kicks off with Mary Holland’s Maggie dying a gruesome death in a motel parking lot. Flashback to 10 days earlier, when we meet the colorful cast of characters who will soon be populating our tangled, sometimes convoluted storyline.
Micah Stock is a comedic force as Jay Moore, a financially strapped, selfish lout who owns a sub sandwich chain franchise and is ripping off the parent company by using ingredients he purchases from the loathsome slimeball Tommy T (Dereck Basco), who supplies Jay with rancid meats and moldy bread in exchange for child pornography.
When Jay’s wife Maggie (Louisa Krause) discovers the photos and kicks Jay out, he hires the enormous, casually cruel and deaf hitman Kosco (Happy Anderson, looking like John Goodman’s scarier cousin) to intimidate Maggie. But the brutish Kosco isn’t about subtleties. Maggie Moore winds up dead in her car, her body burned nearly beyond recognition.
Accompanied by the young Deputy Reddy (Nick Mohammed from “Ted Lasso”), who is forever making borderline offensive observations, Jordan zeroes in on the loathsome Moore as the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. Tina Fey (“30 Rock” reunion alert!) plays the Moores’ nosy, divorced next-door neighbor Rita, who is a key witness and becomes friends and then something more with the widowed Jordan. (As you’d expect, Hamm and Fey instantly click once again.)
When Jay Moore learns there happens to be another woman named Maggie Moore living in the same town, he comes up with the truly idiotic plan of hiring Kosco to kill her, so it will look like the FIRST Maggie Moore was murdered by mistake, thus exonerating Jay. As Jordan says to Deputy Reddy after the second murder, “Was Maggie One mistaken for Maggie Two, or is [the murder of] Maggie Two to cover for Maggie One?”
Things get even more complicated when we learn Maggie Two’s husband (Christopher Denham) was having an affair and might not necessarily be grief-stricken, what with the insurance money and all.
Even the relatively minor players in “Maggie Moore(s)” turn out to be important characters, with standouts including Nicholas Azarian as a high-schooler who works at the sub shop and is treated like dirt by Jay Moore and Oona Roche as a chatty convenience-store cashier who inadvertently seals Maggie Two’s fate.
The black comedy is occasionally set aside for some rough violence. The Maggies aren’t the only characters who don’t get out of this tale alive.
“Maggie Moore(s)” comes close to running of steam in the final act, which isn’t as original or intriguing as the build-up. But, when you’ve got Hamm with a badge and Fey cracking wise and a supporting cast this good, the putatively dull Buckland County can’t help but be an exceptionally interesting place.
