With Plenty to Praise and Little to Deride, 'TR' is a Worthy Film

Rating: 7/10 (15 March 2001)

It's interesting to note that this same screenplay spawned 'Natural Born Killers' the year after 'True Romance' was released. I love that movie to pieces and it has a lot more to say than this one, but that should not be taken as an affront to an enjoyable film- which is exactly what 'True Romance' is. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are Clarence and Alabama Worley, two relative innocents- a comic-book store clerk and a call girl- who fall in love after his boss hires her to sleep with him. He develops an instant hatred for her pimp, so he puts a gun in his sock and goes to visit. Her pimp is Drexl, played by Gary Oldman as a half frighteningly realistic and half laughable 'wigger'. A shootout commences, from which Clarence flees with a suitcase filled not with Alabama's things as he had though, but with cocaine. He realizes he and Alabama could definately use the kind of money that can be made off selling it, so they skip town and head to L.A. after briefly visiting his dad. From there they get mixed up with a famous actor named Elliott, an aspiring one named Dick, Dick's pothead couch potato roommate, Floyd, and a whole gallery of folks who want them dead. 'True Romance' ends well but goes at a fast clip and feels shorter than what it is- for one thing, the time is never taken to develop the sense of inevitability of love between Clarence and Alabama that was created between Mickey and Mallory Knox. Nonetheless, Christian Slater is enjoyable as a guy who knows he's in over his head but is trying to do his best in the situation, and Patricia Arquette has one of her best roles in that guy's cute, not-as-dumb-as-she-seems wife. Her scene with the goon sent to collect the cocaine from their hotel room is both nauseating (who wants to see our heroine get her face bashed in?) and terrific, (how often do you get to see a woman win a brawl this nasty in the movies?) and from it and her ending voice-over, you know that this woman is a survivor through and through. Fun, well-done, and fast-paced, 'True Romance' is a worthy companion film to 'NBK' or, indeed, just about any of the other movies Tarantino has scripted.