Movie Review: True Romance
On paper, True Romance should be absolutely amazing. The 1993 crime drama boasts an amazing director, Tony Scott of Top Gun and Days of Thunder fame, and an amazing writer in the form of Quentin Tarantino. The casting is also nuts — a veritable red carpet list of stars of the era. Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, Dennis Hopper, James Gandolfini, Gary Oldmen, Samuel L Jackson, Val Kilmer, Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rappaport, Chris Penn, and Tom Sizemore. Hell the soundtrack is even done by Hans Zimmer. It is a perfect storm of talent.
And yet the result is…well…pretty forgettable. Aside from two brilliant scenes, the movie is surprisingly boring. It really shouldn’t be. It has a nice tight little narrative that it could have riffed on to great effect. The plot is about a nerdy film geek named Clarence (Slater) finding love with a hooker named “Alabama” (Arquette) who, naturally, has a heart of gold. Given that this was written by Tarantino, the beautiful hooker being smitten by a loser rattling off pop culture trivia in the opening feels a bit self-insert truth be told. The adventure that proceeds from there is triggered by Clarence’s attempt to free Alabama from her unhinged pimp played by a miraculously transformed Gary Oldman. From there it’s pretty much a typical heist story of cops and robbers that meanders for much of its second half.
The movie has a few neat ideas. Early on we see that Clarence has some sort of psychosis where he imagines himself talking to Elvis Presley. This was actually fun and I wish the movie leaned into it more. The film really climaxes right around the halfway point when Clarence and Alabama flee to Clarence’s father’s home. This leads to the infamous “Sicilian” scene. Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper are both superb. The setup and payoff about detecting lies is genuinely cleaver. The playful back and forth between them and the mounting tension are marvelously entertaining. Tarantino even manages to work in white characters casually saying the n-word, which we all know he greatly enjoys.
Honestly the movie is all downhill from there. The contrived drug deal plot that follows is pretty boring in spite of the over the top gory shootout the movie closes with after an almost two hour runtime. One of the problems for me with the film is that there really isn’t anyone to root for or even care about much. Both Clarence and Alabama who start off somewhat endearing become insufferable by the film’s end. Everyone else is either a criminal druglord, hitman, corrupt executive, or something worse. It is a mess of violence and nihilism without much in the way of a meaningful theme.
Still the movie is an interesting sort of cultural artifact for its era. It is a quintessentially 90’s film in many ways. The politically incorrect way the film plays with stereotypes, the not-so-subtle social commentary, the settings and characterizations — all of it is revealing and worth examining if you are a film buff. I recommend it if you are a fan of any of the talent involved (I’ll watch basically anything with Christopher Walken or Dennis Hopper in it) or just in the mood to vibe with the admittedly pretty cool aesthetic. Just don’t expect another Pulp Fiction.
Grade: C+
