Review

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2008)

True Romance is a film that is so well written that you almost forget about its faults and cliché action movie moments. I said almost. Christian Slater plays Clarence, an Elvis loving, Kunfu watching, comic bookstore nerd. He meets a hot blonde hooker named Alabama played by Patricia Arquette and they fall instantly in love. The film is written by Quentin Tarrantino, a former video store nerd himself, and his touch is unmistakable. The plot twists as Clarence kills Alabama's former pimp and steals his drugs causing a chain reaction of events involving the Detroit Mob and the police. It's amazing how many characters Tarrantino writes for in his films and how much depth and complexity they all have. The supporting players such as Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Chris Penn offer some of the most memorable moments in the film most notably a discussion on the origins of the Sicilians. The performances are all very solid especially Gary Oldman as the dread locked pimp, Drexl. He transforms into the character with such detail it's hard to recognize any noticeable traits of the actor on screen. So the acting is great and the script is incredible. Where could it go wrong? The direction of the film by Tony Scott for me brought the film down a few notches. The entire movie felt very claustrophobic. There were way to many close ups that had no motivation at all. In the final shootout he cuts from one close up to another of people shooting and guns. It's hard to tell who is who and where anybody is. Its action movie film-making and overdone. That scene is very similar to Tarrantino's first film Reservoir Dogs, which he directed. There is a shootout in one room where basically everyone dies. The difference is how it was shot. Tarrantino shows all the action in one static shot and it is far more effective. I still love this movie because the dialogue is so unique and the characters are so well rounded and performed so strongly. Its entertaining but I wonder what it could have been if Tarrantino also directed it.