Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Christian Slater
Patricia Arquette
Dennis Hopper
Val Kilmer
Gary Oldman
Brad Pitt
Christopher Walken
Samuel L. Jackson
James Gandolfini
Chris Penn
Tom Sizemore
An all-star cast if I've ever seen one...
Directed by:
Tony Scott
If by any chance you're like me and you like gangster movies, you most likely have seen many Quentin Tarantino movies. You might not have seen True Romance though. In that case, it's probable that like me, you've had your balls busted by all of your friends that have seen it. ¨Oh man! It's the best story Tarantino has ever written, so good¨.
My brain rings the alarm when I hear this sorts of stuff. Force is to admit, the cast and Tarantino convinced me to see this movie. Now that Dennis Hopper died, that would be even more pertinent since it's hailed as one of his last great roles. Plus, my Slavic friend and partner in crime movies Boris told me I should stick my thumb up my ass and watch it. So I gave it a shot.
STORYTELLING
Despite being pretty Peter-Pan'ish, Tarantino finds a way to make the tale work. Clarence Worley (Slater) is a comic-book store clerk (think Brodie Bruce, but without any wits) lonely on his birthday. His boss, wanting to be nice, pays him an escort so he can get laid. It's a pretty sweet attention from a boss to make sure your employees relieve sexual tension while racing around the calendar one more time.
What wasn't envisioned was that the hooker (Arquette) is an itsy-bitsy romantic girl from Florida, who's just starting on the job. She falls in love with dreamy Clarence, they get married and in a display of bat-shit craziness worthy of Mickey and Mallory, he shoots her pimp as a proof of his undying love. While Clarence thinks he recuperates a luggage full of clothes from the pimp, he realizes at home that he is sitting on a luggage full of cocaine instead. Sweet deal huh? From comic-book store to cocaine & murder.
Rising to the occasion, Clarence and Alabama (how is it for the king of redneck names?) run away to Los Angeles to Clarence's best friend, struggling actor Dick Ritchie (Penn), so they could try and sell the load to a Hollywood producer that also happens to be on cocaine. The journey to Hollywood and to the completed deal isn't without its share of mobsters, bullets, beatings and other enjoyable things. Hey, it's a Tarantino written movie!
DIRECTION
Tony Scott is capable of the best and the worst. Recognized as being mostly a journeyman in Hollywood, True Romance stands as one of his best works. There's no artistic statement made from his end, except for the way he makes Tarantino's script hold together. It's a rich and complex universe and it's holding up with more logic than Tarantino's movie (no one watches them for the logic though).
Scott put most of his efforts in a few scenes, where the tension and the atmosphere are way superior than the rest of the movie as a whole. I'm thinking about the Walken Vs Hopper scene where the lighting creates an eerie atmosphere that will get to you. Overall, it's an honest effort for Tony Scott. Honest and humble since most of the time, he tried his best to disappear behind his all-star cast.
ACTING
Christian Slater has no talent, but as you can imagine, it's the last thing that comes up to your mind after the movie got passed the twenty minutes mark. Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper have a memorable verbal duel that ends up in a Tarantino signed puddle of blood. James Gandolfini, in a Tony Soprano omen, delivers one of the best beatings I've seen in recent memory from a work of fiction. Kudos to Patricia Arquette that is a big part of this memorable fight. Gandolfini has a small role, but in a way, he steals the show.
Brad Pitt makes a funny appearance as Chris Penn's roommate. As usual, he's funny, accurate and finds a way to be pertinent to the movie, despite having a very small role. The movie relies on its solid acting and its solid delivery of the in-your-face one liners of Tarantino. The cast doesn't disappoint.
INTEREST
There's an after-taste of gang-banging fairy tales to True Romance that's dragging the movie down. As Tarantino later understood with Pulp Fiction, crime is no place where butterfly grows and odds are beaten. It's a dark world where you have to play by the rules.
The narrative is good, but not unforgettable, so is the direction. The way-above-average acting and occasionally smart one liners saves True Romance from the dust of the shelves. I've enjoyed True Romance but will probably won't see it again.
NOTE: B-
