Oliver Stone's "U-Turn" is his best film since "J.F.K": a jagged, furious, interminable assault on the senses with enough bloody violence, expletives and adulterous affairs to send any sensitive Christian out the door. It is a solid piece of unpredictable entertainment: wickedly funny and darkly comic at every turn.
Based on the book "Stray Dogs" by John Ridley (who also wrote the script), "U-Turn" stars Sean Penn as Booby Cooper, a gambler with a bag full of money who inadvertently breaks down in the strange town of Superior, Arizona. His troubles are just beginning: he brings his 1964 Mustang convertible with a broken radiator hose to a sully mechanic named Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton); his bag of money (an overdue gambling debt) is blown to bits during an unexpected convenience store robbery; he has a fling with the sexy Grace (Jennifer Lopez) before his nose is broken by her husband Jake (Nick Nolte) who in turn asks him to kill his wife; he has a diner encounter with a ditsy blonde teenager (Claire Danes) before he's repeatedly challenged to a fight by her tough boyfriend (Joaquim Phoenix); and then there's the old, blind Indian (Jon Voight) who teaches him moral lessons about life such as 'Nothing is nothing. Everything is everything.'
"U-Turn" engages us and pushes our buttons right from the opening sequence with a spectacular sight of the Arizona desert where a red Mustang is headed for unwanted trouble. Bobby is not a hero, though: he's flawed, has murderous impulses and not much of a conscience. This is the world of film noir, and we know there are no heroes in such a world. Bobby has no qualms about killing Jake's wife, Grace, as long as he gets the dough. But when Grace asks him to kill Jake, split with the money and head for Hawaii, what can Bobby do? He's confused, pathetic and headed for disaster considering a loan shark is after him. At one point, since he lost his gambling money, he opts for just two-hundred dollars to pay the mechanic for the damage to the car. Nobody, however, will lend him the money. He has a little over twenty bucks left yet it is not enough for the train ticket to Juarez, Mexico. He pleads and pleads for it and finally convinces the ticket agent (Laurie Metcalf) to give him a break - the guy definitely needs it but his day isn't over yet. Before you can say existentialism, Bobby endures several beatings, tortures, backstabbing, and double-crosses to make Franz Kafka blush. This is a world he can't escape from, and his illicit affair with Grace could lead to more than he bargained for. Who can he trust?
Oliver Stone is the perfect director for this neo-noirish, blood-soaked Western that is reminiscent of the cult film "Red Rock West." He bludgeons the screen, courtesy of the deft cinematographer Robert Richardson, with grainy colors, strobe cuts, and black-and-white images. The bright colors (bright reds, greens, and dark blacks) lend the film a baroque, cartoonish look atypical of Stone's ouevre, but his style is more evocative of the chaos and unpredictable surprises in Bobby's world than in "Nixon" or "Natural Born Killers." The rapid-fire montage cutting and editing is not as wild as you might expect - this is the first Stone film I can think of since "The Doors" where you can actually breathe while all the sound and fury is exploding on screen.
As in Stone's other work, the performances are extraordinary. Sean Penn turns in one of his finest roles as the confounded, bruised Bobby with black hair, a bandaged hand, and slick clothes, and is more distraught than anyone else in the movie. Nick Nolte is all fire and brimstone as the vicious, crazed real-estate mogul Jake who has a certain obsession with Grace - his overbite and white orange crewcut reveals a strong yet weak, disturbed man who weeps during sex. Jennifer Lopez ("Selena") is quite captivating as the femme fatale Grace, an Apache woman who has an incestual past revealed in quick montages - she keeps the character cryptic to the point where we don't know if she can be trusted anymore than if Bobby can. Billy Bob Thornton is the welcome comic relief in this bizarre odyssey as he spews and spits with relish resembling a revolting court jester. Claire Danes ("Romeo and Juliet") is engagingly delirious as the girl who is attracted to Bobby - her scene in the diner where she questions him on the disappearance of Patsy Cline is a classic. Joaquim Phoenix is bitingly hilarious as her jealous boyfriend. Also worth mentioning is Powers Boothe as the sheriff of Superior who may have some ties to Grace's past, and there's also a strange cameo by Liv Tyler as a passenger at a train station. She doesn't utter a word but most film buffs will love to see her brief appearance anyway.
"U-Turn" is not a great film - there's too much time devoted to the mysterious Grace and her predictably angry husband Jake - but it is a nice change-of-pace for Stone. It's joltingly alive and incredibly funny. Other major pluses are the superb performances by all, brilliant cinematography and a terrific soundtrack full of Peggy Lee songs. "U-Turn" deserves a place in the Western noir tablets along with "Blood Simple," "Wild at Heart" and the aforementioned "Red Rock West."
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with questions, concerns or complaints at Faust667@aol.com or at jerry@movieluver.com
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