Rating: 4/5
Ex-Marine Michael drove from Texas to Wyoming because a friend said he could offer him a job in an oilfield. The foreman, however, doesn’t want to take on the liability of hiring someone with a bum knee. His friend chastises him for bringing up the knee at all, but Michael refuses to be dishonest. He drives to a nearby gas station to fill up. He looks for the gas station attendant but finds a wad of cash sticking out of a safety deposit box. Michael shakes his head, and the gas station attendant arrives to pump gas. While filling up on Michael’s last five dollars, the gas station attendant suggests that Michael head to Red Rock and ask around for work there.
Michael pulls up to a bar in Red Rock. The bartender, Wayne, sees the Texas license plate and assumes Michael is Lyle and is there for the job. Michael, desperate for work, doesn’t contradict Wayne and follows him back to the office, where Wayne places $5,000 on the table. Half now, half when he finishes the job. And what is this job? It’s to murder Wayne’s wife, Suzanne.
Michael has been honest to a fault up to this point. What will this simple lie cost him for such a generous reward?
The film has that satisfying blend of revisionist Western atmosphere with a textbook noir plotline. Throw some Nic Cage and Dennis Hopper into the mix, and you have a tasty, melodramatic little thriller.
The first act is so tight, putting all the pieces in place and keeping me on the edge of my seat. The script avoids many plot cul-de-sacs by opting for a fun turn of events instead of the most logical one. These choices aren’t a problem until the third act, where the movie makes one twist too many and plays out a routine climax.
That said, Nic Cage is in his 90s prime here — yes, he leans more toward The Rock than Face/Off, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. No surprise, Dennis Hopper gets to be the one who goes buck-wild, complete with his arsenal of improvised quips and expressive face.
The real weak links are Lara Flynn Boyle and, to a lesser extent, J.T. Walsh. After Boyle’s successful run on Twin Peaks and her comedic performance in Wayne’s World, it seemed like she could do it all. But here, she lacks the charisma for the role, coming off more like a horny high schooler than a femme fatale. It’s only a problem during a brief and hilarious sex scene. The film just asks J.T. Walsh to do too much. They lean on our expectations of who his character would be, and when it’s anything more, the movie slows a bit.
Perhaps my score is going a little higher than I would usually because I watched it with an audience who knew when to laugh and cheer—they knew this movie isn’t as deadly serious as Blood Simple, and no one can deny the pleasure of Nic Cage yelling.
I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to see a screening of this at the Carolina Theatre! This movie is notorious for being rarely screened and difficult to find. The latter is likely due to the studio’s total lack of faith in John Dahl, as evidenced by their decision to sell TV rights to HBO and Showtime before the movie hit theaters.
This movie won’t change your life, but if this sounds appealing to you, you’ll probably get a kick out of it.