Rickie Cass is a man on a mission. He's read somewhere that drinking 60 cups of coffee will kill you, and he's determined to put that theory to the test. He approaches this task the way a private eye approaches his last big case. His thoughts come spilling out in voiceover, full of hard-boiled dialogue like "We think we know ourselves, our intimates, but we don't." Sixty Cups of Coffee is basically a detective story, about a mystery that will never be solved.

And that's the beauty part: how simple it is. We don't need to know why he does it. There are no flashbacks explaining how Rickie is suicidal because his wife left him or his dog got ran over. It's important for him to find out what will happen, and so it's important for us, too.

That's not to say the movie doesn't satisfy our curiosity as to why Rickie wants to go through with it. Our surrogate in this matter is a little kid in the diner who asks, "Hey mister, whatcha doin'?" In a roundabout way, Rickie tells him that experience matters.

The movie is a wonderful recreation of the look, manners and customs of a small-town diner. I love the two good old boys who place bets on whether Rickie will finish, and I love the waitress behind the counter who was probably a knockout in high school but has since given up. The casting and costume choices are all perfect. This is a terrific offbeat comedy.