Sean Penn, John Travolta and Robin Wright Penn star in a volatile love triangle in this film, directed by Nick Cassavetes from a script by his late father, John Cassavetes. It's harsh and uneven, but offers scenes of naked emotion and inventive acting. The first hour of the film establishes the passionately dysfunctional relationship between Eddie and the high-strung Maureen, who has just learned she's pregnant by Eddie.
Many scenes involve the couple in extended bouts of drinking in a grungy tavern.
When Eddie disappears for three days, Maureen seeks solace by slugging back a few with a neighbor, who beats and rapes her. When Eddie finds out, he goes berserk and ultimately is hauled off to a mental institution. Ten years later, when he's released, he finds out that Maureen has built a new, respectable life with Joey. But Maureen still loves Eddie, and when they reunite, she must choose between Joey and her children and her irrational love for Eddie. And Travolta, who inhabits every character he plays with a confident authenticity, is swell as the beefy can-do contractor who fears losing the woman he loves to a loser like Eddie.