DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Dylan McDermott, Nancy Travis, James LeGros, Jim Belushi, Quentin Tarantino. Screenplay: Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone. Director: Jack Baran.
Adventurous young screenwriters and filmmakers often have to walk a very fine line between originality and approachability. Those seeking financing from sources like The Sundance Institute are trying to win people over with a creative spirit, but a different aesthetic is frequently required if the film is lucky enough to make it into the marketplace. DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO has already been branded with the financially toxic label of "cult film," and it is true that its tone bears more than a passing resemblance to films like REPO MAN and WILD AT HEART. But there's more than that to DESTINY. Although it is wild and quirky, occasionally to excess, it is also surprisingly entertaining and grounded in real emotion by an exceptional performance from Nancy Travis.
Dylan McDermott stars as Julian Goddard, a bank robber just escaped from prison after three years. He is picked up along the road by an odd fellow named Johnny Destiny (Quentin Tarantino), and the two men head for Las Vegas. There Julian hopes to be reunited both with his partner-in-crime Harry Thoreau (James LeGros), who should have his half of the bank haul, and with his girlfriend Lucille (Nancy Travis). Unfortunately, Lucille has since hooked up with casino boss Tuerto (Jim Belushi), and the money was stolen from Thoreau on the night of the robbery ... as it turns out, by Johnny Destiny. As Julian attempts to win back Lucille's heart and Thoreau prepares for another meeting with Destiny, they all discover that there are some things you just can't plan for in Las Vegas, "a town of limitless possibilities."
It would be foolish to suggest that the first thing one would notice about DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO would be anything but it's rather off-center characteristics. A motel with rooms named after Marilyn Monroe films, a shared dream which results in a pregnancy and an electrified swimming pool which acts as a gateway to another reality are not exactly the stuff of your average multiplex picture. There are occasions when those elements come perilously close to overkill, or indeed topple into overkill, but they are rare. The main reason screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone and director Jack Baran succeed is that most of the strangeness comes from the characters, and they are well-developed and well-performed almost to a one. Dylan McDermott and James LeGros play off each other well as the two thieves, each with his own ideas about the strange events of the story, and Jim Belushi is both comic and menacing as the big shot with a penchant for grabbing is crotch. The smaller roles are full of winners as well: Barry Henley and Richard Edson as two cops in terrible sport coats; Tracey Walter as Julian's reclusive father; Bobcat Goldthwait as an undercover cop; especially David Cross as a hyperkinetic talent agent. Only Quentin Tarantino, who should be declared legally charisma-impaired, bombs in his role. That's a problem, because Johnny Destiny requires _presence_, not just attitude.
Though DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO could have been little more than a loose conglomeration of strange scenes, the film is held together by the location. Las Vegas becomes a kind of character in the film, a real-life mirage of false hopes. One character (the comically named recording executive Vinnie Vidivici) describes the city as "smelling of formaldehyde," and that feeling is part of the story. Vegas is where dreams and careers go to die, where doomed marriages are born, and where chance turns everyone into a loser eventually.
It is Nancy Travis who drives that theme home. For all practical purposes, DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO really revolves around Lucille, a casino singer stuck in the place where nobody gets "discovered." When Julian and her one big chance at fame turn up on the same day, Lucille faces some tough choices between her dreams of happiness and her pragmatism. It is an intriguing character, wonderfully played by an actress who has been stuck too often in minor roles in bad films like GREEDY. And it's a shame that too many viewers won't see her performance because of the strange story surrounding her. DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO is aimed at those with a taste for the surreal, but it also has a very real heart which makes it more than the sum of its parts.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 destinies: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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