The January Man (1989)

★ 4.9 1h 37m 168 votes IMDb

Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police.

The January Man

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Cast

Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline as Nick Starkey Age 78 · St. Louis, Missouri, USA Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor and singer. He is regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation and has enjoyed a successful career in both film and theater....
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon as Christine Starkey Age 79 · New York City, New York, USA Susan Abigail Sarandon (née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actor. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actor...
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Bernadette Flynn Age 67 · Lombard, Illinois, USA Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of West Side Story, and went on to appear in the 1983 film Scarf...
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel as Police Commissioner Frank Starkey Age 86 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Harvey Johannes Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an American actor known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and ha...
Danny Aiello
Danny Aiello as Captain Vincent Alcoa Died 2019 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. (June 20, 1933 – December 12, 2019) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Front (1976), Once Upon a Time in America...
Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger as Mayor Eamon Flynn Died 2002 · Westhampton, New York, USA Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was a European-American actor known for his performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Oklahoma!, Waterloo, The Pawnbroker, On...

Audience Reviews

tmdb28039023 3/10 Sep 05, 2022
The January Man initially feels like a thriller, opening with a woman being strangled to death, which segues to the mayor of New York City discussing the murder, the eleventh in as many months committed by a serial killer who uses a blue tape to suffocate his victims, with the police commissioner. That the mayor and the commissioner are played respectively by Rod Steiger and Harvet Keitel only stresses the gravity of the situation.

However, the discerning moviegoer will be able to anticipate the true nature of the film as soon as they observe that it follows the Kevin Kline Mustache Principle, according to which Kline always wears facial hair when playing comedic roles, but shaves for serious roles.

Nick Starkey (Kline), a brilliant former detective who has been exiled to the fire department because of an oft-mentioned but never-explained scandal. His brother Frank, the aforementioned police commissioner, reinstates him per the mayor's suggestion/order. This is bad news for police captain Alcoa (Danny Aiello).

Aiello stands out in the usually thankless job of 'straight man', to the point that his best scene, and arguably the best in the film, is not among those he shares with Steiger and Keitel, or with Kline and Alan Rickman, but the one wherein he reacts with increasing bewilderment when a subordinate attempts to explain why Nick turned down the office that was assigned to him.

Rickman plays Ed, a painter/computer whiz. Nick and Ed discover that the location of the buildings where the victims lived, when viewed on a map of Manhattan, form the constellation Virgo. They also realize that all of the rooms in which the murders occurred have windows on the front of the building, and that when the exterior location of the windows are aligned based on the floor they are on, they correlate with eleven notes in the chorus of the song “Calendar Girl”.

That the occupant of the apartment is always a woman who is always home alone the night of the attack (the killer acts on dates that are prime numbers) is arguably the least of all the coincidences in the movie, but then The January Man has not the slightest interest in creating a plausible villain, and that in an all-star cast, also including Susan Sarandon and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, the anonymous killer is played by a stunt double, tells us everything we need to know about the importance this character had for the filmmakers.
GenerationofSwine 10/10 Jan 14, 2023
This is one of those rare films about a serial killer that isn't so much about the killer himself as it is how the law enforcement officer tracks him down and arrests him. And that perspective is always welcome, especially here because it took the gambit of really not focusing on the killer at all.

It was a bit like Manhunter in its approach.

And the fact that an actor with great comedic timing was cast as the lead and supported by Alan Rickman in a nearly unrecognizable role made it even better. It's a rare gem of a film that stands out from everything else on so many levels.

It's also, however, a film that far too many people have forgotten about.

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