The January Man

The January Man is a 1989 American crime comedy directed by Pat O'Connor from a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley. The film stars Kevin Kline as Nick Starkey, a smart ex-NYPD detective who is lured back into service by his police commissioner brother (Harvey Keitel) when a serial killer terrorizes the city. Nick becomes involved with the mayor's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and is aided in his investigation by his neighbor, Ed, an artist (Alan Rickman). Plot On New Year's Eve, Manhattan socialite Alison Hawkins returns home from the evening's festivities. As she feeds her fish before going to bed, she is strangled to death by an undetected intruder with a blue ribbon. It is the latest murder by a serial killer who has been terrorizing the city for eleven months. The mayor, frustrated with the lack of progress in the case, tells NYPD commissioner Frank Starkey to bring in his brother, former detective Nick Starkey, being the only man brilliant enough to catch the killer. This is a controversial assignment for Frank because Nick left the force in disgrace two years earlier.