From Tarantino and Tony Scott, here’s a romantic movie that’s a little different, between hallucinations of Elvis and more cocaine than a Miami beach party. You can tell it’s written by Tarantino because of the references to old-school martial arts cinema and the…brashness of the dialogue, and you can tell it wasn’t directed by him because the camera isn’t trying to get a look at Patricia Arquette’s bunions—it’s True Romance.
Christian Slater plays our first lead Clarence, who as usual for Slater, is doing his best to channel a dorkier Jack Nicholson. Working in a comic book store and spending a lot of time at the local rerun-screening movie theater, he soon finds a seeming dream come true when a lovely lady by the name of Alabama (Arquette), sharing his passion for Sonny Chiba and more, almost literally falls into his lap. Of course, it does indeed turn out to be too good to be true…but then they both decide to just go ahead and make it a true love anyway.
What does make True Romance stand out is, of course, one show-stealing secondary character after the other. We have Gary Oldman as a pimp…with scuzzy dreads and all, because why the hell not. It’s a performance that’s almost as hilarious as what he did in Fifth Element, and you think because it’s the nineties and he’s Gary Oldman…he’s going to be the main bad guy. But he’s out of the picture before long, and then we get to Dennis Hopper, who, very surprisingly, plays a rather amiable character.
Think he’s going to stick around? Nope! Because before long we have Christopher ‘Dis GAI’ Walken, walkin’ and talkin’ as Walken does, proving that he is indeed that rare type that can actually steal the scene from the likes of Hopper. It’s somewhat disappointing that he only really appears for one scene, but just as in Pulp Fiction, it’s probably going to be a scene you’re not going to forget.
Of course, we’re still not done, as we have an even more hilarious character with Brad Pitt as a perpetually discombobulated stoner improvizing his way over the set, once our heroes relocate to Los Angeles with a suitcase of stolen cocaine—and unwittingly getting the mafia, the cops, and a few more people roped into their escapades. I suppose there is at the core here a heartwarming message that even when you’re accidentally causing shootouts and mayhem aplenty, love can indeed prevail.
Still, you do wish that some of the above characters would stick around or show up a little more—and, if there’s another thing I was a little eh on, it was the score, by Hans Zimmer surprisingly. It’s not my favorite Zimmer score, and sounds better suited to a documentary about penguins or something to be honest.
Overall though, True Romance is still as entertaining and foul-mouthed as it ever was—as far as non-directed Tarantino scripts go, it’s also definitely a level above Natural Born Killers, a rather mixed bag that I might get to later. Interestingly, both films were originally conceived as the same story—but as it is, I think this one stands fine enough by its own…
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