Romeo Is Bleeding

Plot synopsis:
We see an empty bar out in the middle of the desert. The bartender, Jim Doherty (Gary Oldman) starts narrating in voice over as he cleans up and looks through a photo album:
Bartender: You ever seen a ghost? There's this guy. Comes in here. Every May 1st. Every May 1st, every December 1st. Like clock work. What's he want? Well, frankly, I ain't exactly sure. He had the strangest story to tell. He left this here and I keep it for him. How do I know he'll be back? What's that? A woman was involved? [trying on a ring] Hm, just fits. I was married once myself. Beautiful girl. By the way my name is Jim Doherty. I run this place. His name? Sure. His name is Jack Grimaldi. Hey, there he is now!We see Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) driving down the road in a neat looking suit. Jim Doherty tells us that "Jack was a romantic guy, big dreams.The problem was, there was always a little daylight between his dreams and his wallet. See, he was a working stiff, 56 grand a year and never made it past Sergeant. And, every day he looked at a little of this, (We see Jack responding to a grisly murder scene) and then he looked at too much of that (We see Jack on a stakeout watching a guy having sex with two girls.) And all the time he was thinking, huh, I bet you know what he was thinking, dontcha? you'd a done just what he wound up doin' I'll bet. He walked around just like everybody, but inside, he wasn't like anybody."We see Jack come home to his wife and dancing with her in the yard until late in the night, as Doherty tells us she was his true love and he could've told her anything. We then flash forward to see Grimaldi trying to keep control of a car with blood all over his face, struggling with a woman who is trying to strangle him with her legs from the backseat. Donherty says "Hey wait a minute. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here." and stops the scene, asking the audience "Pretend you didn't see that. Now where was I?" We flash back to where we left off and we're told that Grimaldi's plan is working great, until the day "things started to go wrong." We see Grimaldi watching federal agents who are guarding a mobster, Nick Gazzara (Dennis Farina) set to testify against the mob the next day. Nick jokes with the agents telling stories about old jobs while eating dinner. Grimaldi watches from the rooftop across the street until he's sure of the room. He then calls the mob and gives them the information, for which he's paid $65,000.00 in a drop box.We then see Grimaldi blindfolded playing a guessing game with a girl named Sheri (Juliette Lewis) Sheri tells him she dreamed he had a wife, and it was her. She tells him how happy she is to be with him. And Doherty tells us that "a man don't always do what's best for him, sometimes he does the worst." We see Grimaldi on the couch making out with Sheri. Later, at a restaurant, Grimaldi tells his fellow cops about Sheri and they love the details. They talk about a recent case involving a mobster informant named Frank Malacci, who they're not getting any useful information from, when another cop comes in telling them that Nick Gazzara "got popped" and they suspect the assassin Mona Demarkov. The cop with the news speculates that without Gazzara, they'll have to get information from DeMarkov. Grimaldi visualizes the scene, when he hears that DeMarkov also killed the agents.Grimaldi meets with his mob connection and complains about the agents dying and how this makes him a cop killer, which wasn't part of the deal. He tells Grimaldi that Mona Demarkov has to be taken out offering Grimaldi the job. He concentrates on the money rather than worry anymore about cops possibly getting killed again. He arranges to pick up Mona (Lena Olin) from the police department, ostensibly to drive her to a safe house where the Feds are waiting for her. Grimaldi checks them into a hotel and uncuffs her in the room. He lights her a cigarette and Mona asks him how he'd like to become a rich man. "Well, I've already got my health." he tells her, but listens anyway. She picks up her chair and moves it so she sits down touching his leg with hers. He quickly drops his gun for the sexual opportunity, which she encourages. She reaches for his gun before long, thinking him distracted, but finds he's moved it. The two of them are interrupted by Federal agents who have the room key and walk right in finding Mona and Grimaldi on the floor. Mona starts laughing hysterically. He leaves her to the agents and then tips off the mob to her whereabouts, reminding Sal that the agents don't get hit.Grimaldi goes home to see his wife, Natalie (Annabella Sciorra) She fixes him food and complains that it's too fancy. She pulls a gun on him and says "I don't know Jack, You tell me." before laughing, revealing she's joking. He asks her about the photos she takes, and she tells him she hopes to photograph weddings. He sneaks outside and we see that he keeps all of his "extra" money in a hole in the yard beneath a metal cover. Doherty's voice over tells us that Grimaldi hears "a sucking sound" from the hole and all he can think about is feeding the hole, blocking out thoughts of the casualties it took to make the money. He has a dream that night about Natalie and Mona both holding guns on him.Grimaldi visits with Sheri, who dances in lingerie for him. He calls the station to check on homicides, hoping to hear that Mona was killed. Sheri asks "Is it hard yet baby?" and he replies "It ain't easy!" We see Grimaldi at the police station next, in the middle of a poker game. Sal calls him at the station and tells him to come outside. They talk to each other from separate benches and Sal tells him that Mona wasn't there, and his boss, Falcone, wants to see Grimaldi tomorrow and Sal advise him that he "better have something for him." He tells him that Falcone thinks he's holding out, and he'll need an address or something. Grimaldi heads to the restroom where his fellow officer, Martie (Will Patton) finds him. Martie is in a panic and he tells Grimaldi that he had picked up Mona Demarkov to transport her for the feds, who suspected someone was working both sides, and Mona took his gun and ran. Martie is afraid that he'll lose his job.Grimaldi pulls up Mona's file and finds a picture of her with Falcone (Roy Scheider) He steals a tape from the file, which tells him that Mona had had an arrangement with an FBI agent, which left the agent mentally unstable culminating in his suicide. Grimaldi goes home and checks on his money hole, not realizing that Natalie is watching him from the window.Grimaldi is escorted to Falcone's place. Grimaldi acts outraged accusing Falcone of breaking their deal, reminding him that he said no cops would be killed. Falcone reminds him that he was paid, and says "a life's a life." Grimaldi offers Falcone the money for Mona back, but Falcone won't take it telling him "I don't want the money back. I want Mona Demarkov dead." He tells Grimaldi he's to find her and kill her. Grimaldi says he won't kill her. Falcone tells him a story about Robert Lowell meeting Louis Lepke, Lowell, a conscientious objector, being in prison for not killing anyone, and Lepke being in prison for the opposite. When the moral of the story doesn't catch with Grimaldi, he reminds him that he can do all sorts of things to him and his family and will if he doesn't deliver. He reminds Grimaldi "You see, you don't make the deals Jack. I make the deals, and you're in until I say otherwise."Jack gets back to his life and starts telling himself, "Stay alive, 65 grand, feed the hole." His fellow cops in their regular restaurant, notice he's flustered. He gets a phone call from Mona, who knows he's supposed to kill her by Wednesday. She tells him she's at the hotel, "our room." He meets her there and she asks what Falcone offered him. Mona offers him $325,000.00 to tell Falcone she's dead. She tells him they'll find a body and the autopsy will confirm it's her. She shows him a case holding half the amount and promises the other half when he has a death certificate.He visits Sheri and she tells him she's leaving, because she doesn't fool around with married men. He tries to convince her to stay. He talks to Natalie next who wants to know why things have gotten worse for them instead of better. Natalie tells him that money is the only thing that lasts, but he acts like he doesn't know what she's talking about. She then asks if he's screwing her sister "or just my niece." She tells him "I don't know what you're doing Jack, but don't bring it back here."The mobsters and cops all show up for Nick Gazzara's funeral, and Falcone takes the opportunity to talk to Grimaldi. He has some of his thugs take Jack and rough him up, taking one of his toes off, promising to take the rest tomorrow. Jack protests that it isn't Wednesday, but Falcone doesn't care. Grimaldi runs home afterwards and gives Natalie the money from the yard, telling her what he'd been doing, and to go to the Holiday Diner in Phoenix and check for him there every six months, May 1st and December 1st. He asks her "Will you be there?" and she says "We're married, aren't we?" He says "That's no answer." and apologizes telling her that he loves her and can't live without her, begging her not to leave him. She tells him she did something at home, to let him know, and it's in the top drawer of the bureau. Grimaldi says "I'll do anything." and Doherty narrates "Do what exactly? Can I tell you what makes love so frightening? It's that you don't own it, it owns you." He then drops Sheri off at the subway station, and she begs him to "Say it." He tells her "It's over." and Sheri adds "and you're sorry right, you're so fucking sorry."He sits in his car starts writing an apology letter to Natalie, sobbing as he writes. Afterwards we see he's having trouble walking, due to his missing toe. He falls asleep at the waterfront and Mona shows up to meet him in a car. She shows him the last half of the money, and gives her a death certificate and fake id, telling her she died of a shot to the chest. He asks Mona if she's ever been in love, she doesn't answer but instead wraps a cord around his neck and tries to strangle him. He struggles and gets out of the car and shoots Mona in the leg. When she still struggles he knocks her out and puts her in the backseat of the car and drives off. We see that she wakes quickly, and reaches her calves up around his neck while he's driving, locking her feet together to choke him. He loses control of the car and hits a post, getting knocked out against the steering wheel. Mona squirms her way out of the car taking her papers in her teeth and running. Grimaldi checks his house and finds the mobsters have gone through it. He finds a photo album in the top drawer of the bureau and takes it determined not to return there or anywhere familiar.He starts watching Sal and finds that he's been meeting with Mona. He hears shots from the apartment where they're meeting and runs to check it out. Thinking he sees Mona moving at the window he shoots her several times, and approaches her to find that he just shot Sheri, who was dressed up in clothes and a wig to look like Mona from behind, as well as tied and gagged to the spot where she was standing.Grimaldi runs off to find Mona, but she returns to the apartment when he leaves. She unties Sheri's corpse and pulls her own severed arm from her handbag, then cuts off Sheri's and replaces it with her own before lighting the place on fire. The next morning Grimaldi reads that Mona was found dead in the fire, just before some thugs find him. They catch him and knock him out while we see Mona outfitting herself with a prosthetic arm.We then see that Grimaldi is cuffed to a bed in the same room and Mona points a gun at him,the scene matching the bad dream he'd had earlier.Mona talks him out for a ride and reveals she has someone in the trunk. She opens it and he sees she has Falcone gagged and tied there. She tells him to dig a grave for Falcone. When he protests, Mona tells him "dig one grave or two." She pushes Falcone into the hole and has Grimaldi fill it in at gunpoint. When he's buried she fires into the ground and tells Grimaldi he's a free man. We see shortly afterwards, Mona and Grimaldi at a dance, having a great time. Doherty narrates: "You ever wonder what Hell is like? Maybe it ain't the place you think. fire and brimstone? the Devil with horns poking you in the butt with a pitchfork? What's hell? The time you should have walked, but you didn't. That's hell. Huh, you're looking at it."Mona and Grimaldi are next in a hotel room. Grimaldi counts some money in a suitcase and says "good bye." Mona asks him for "one last dance." before dropping her pants to the floor. "Why not." Grimaldi says. In moments the door opens and the cops show up to arrest Grimaldi. In the back of the squad car, he's given a letter from his fellow officers which reads " Jack, What a pisser. Here we are, fighting the bullshit for fifteen years and now we find out that you're part of the bullshit. What can we tell you? You broke our hearts, you dumbest of fucks. And, we mean that sincerely." They bring Jack to the same place he first brought Mona and try to convince him to cut a deal before Mona does, offering him witness relocation protection. He runs into Mona at the courthouse, and sees that they're letting her go for cooperating. She brags to him that even when they had sex, he never got to her. He tells her that during sex, he thought of his wife. Mona then tels him that's too bad because his wife is a dead woman and he's a dead man and laughs at him before walking away. Jack pulls a gun from one of the officer's leg holsters and shoots Mona dead. He then puts the gun in his own mouth but finds it's empty. The empty chamber sounds along with the bell ringing at the Diner in Phoenix. He tells us he was given a medal for "defending his fellow officers" along with a new residence and identity.We see him as Doherty at the diner, looking through the album of wedding photos on "May 1st, that was five years ago to the day. I guess this is where I came in, to tell you the story of an unlucky guy who fell in love with a hole in the ground; a ghost, haunting his own grave, celebrating every six months with the same party, waiting for the same guest of honor to show. Demarkov? Dead and buried. Everything I had, finito, except that old voice in my head. Some things you never let go of. Of course, Natalie, she wasn't the only guest invited [we see that the photo album has pages for other women] Can't be a party without a crowd. I don't remember much of it really. Don't remember what I said to 'em, or what they said to me back. Don't remember how I felt, but once in a while, I do remember how they looked at me." We see that there are no pictures of him and Mona, although Natalie had made pages for them. He continues "Well, I guess she's not gonna make it, always next time though, right?" He hears the door and jumps when he imagines Mona coming in. He then sees Natalie, but the image fades away. He walks out of the dinner and sits down at the gas pumps outside, narrating; "Maybe you think I'm ready to give up, but that ain't how it is. She could came walking through that door any day, cause even after all of this, I bet she still loves me."

Tags: comedy, avant garde, cruelty, suspenseful, murder, neo noir, cult, violence, good versus evil, satire, tragedy, revenge, sadist

Review:
I just love this film.It is only one out of over 5,000 movies have either rented or purchased that I watched back-to-back nights after seeing it for the first time.
It is, start-to-finish, the most entertaining crime movie I have ever watched.Being of fan of film noir, those wonderfully-narrated crime films of the '40s and '50s, Romeo Is Bleeding is right up my alley.
I may be wrong but believe this whole film is simply a parody of the film noirs: an outrageous take on those movies with an over-the-top villain (Lena Olin, the most fascinating female I have ever come across on film), along with over-the-top characters, action scenes, dialog and narration.
Then, one day, his life slowly goes on a descent to hell when he is assigned to watch over the deliciously wicked Mona(Lena Olin, who should have gotten an Oscar nod for this performance).
Go see Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant instead if you can handle the realism in that movie at least, has a bit of over-acting too though.Gary Oldman, Lena Olin and Roy Scheider are absolutely brilliant and super-cool in this movie.Beautiful entertaining piece of artwork.
It stars Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis and Roy Scheider.
Music is by Mark Isham and Gary Alper and cinematography by Dariusz Wolski.Oldman plays corrupt cop Jack Grimaldi who does favours for The Mob in exchange for considerable payments.
I have seen it, I don't know how many times, but I never tire of it.Everyone does a fine job of acting and Lena Olin is one of the most lethal women in a movie I've ever seen.
The rest of the cast is simply superb and I don't know how in the world Gary Oldman, Juliette Lewis, Annabella Sciorra and Lena Olin were not nominated for the Academy Award in their respective categories.
Gary Oldman does an incredible job, one of his best IMO, as the corrupt cop, Jack Grimaldi.Lena Olin is one of the most deadly women on the planet...if you see her, run.If all this isn't enough, GO is hot as anything in his role.So rent it for that if you hate Noir but love Oldman.Cheers and happy viewings..
Revisiting Romeo is Bleeding after a number of years, I was struck by what still works, what doesn't, and how wonderful endings allow us to overlook any number of faults that lead up to them.Gary Oldman is Jack, a corrupt DS well-loved by his men looking to build an ill-gotten nest egg towards early retirement.
The cop in Jack knows to cuff her, lock her up, and throw away the key, but the Jack in Jack has another agenda.Romeo is Bleeding is every frame a modern noir thriller, made great by Hilary Henkin's script exhibiting detailed reverence for the genre, and some unparalleled performances by the actors.
Jack never quite gets to grips with her, and that is to be his ultimate tragedy.There are hints of Chandler here (the letter to Jack from The Boys), and Chinatown, too, most noticeably in the bloodied, deformed demeanor of the protagonist in the final third, but Romeo is Bleeding is a stylish noir piece that acknowledges its antecedents without racking up debts.And then there is the ending, of such heartbreaking, poignant beauty, Oldman and Sciorra pitch-perfect, deftly shot and edited, a wave you ride and crash on shore with.
And, portraying this fallen man, is possibly the world's finest actor -Gary Oldman.He lives the story of a bad cop, turned worse, with no chance for redemption.Nobody does it better.
Lena Olin is wonderful, too, as the psychotic hit-woman who leads Oldman's Jack Grimaldi down the trail to Hell.The combination of a faboulous story-line, and acting like this, should've garnered much more attention than it did.A wonderful film with spectacular acting..
Gary Oldman, in a monumentally underrated performance, plays Jack Grimaldi, a sleaze bag cop attempting to play the Police force, the Feds and the mob against each other in order to make obscene amounts of dirty money for himself.
Of course his scheme falls apart (as all schemes like this do, in movie land) spectacularly so, at the hands of Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) a tyrannical, deranged Russian contract killer with a penchant for gleeful brutality and unhinged violence.
Juliette Lewis does her early 90's ditzy thing to perfection, Annabella Sciorra is sweet as Jack's poor wife, the only sympathetic character in the whole deal, Roy Scheider feels a bit miscast as the vengeful mob boss, but Ron Perlman, Michael Wincott, Will Patton, James Chromwell, David Proval and Dennis Farina are top notch in welcome cameos.
Anyone who's a fan of crime films, noir, good story lines, and this troupe of actors (and really, how can you not be, just look at this cast!!) will love this..
Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Michael Wincott, Juliette Lewis, Annabella Sciorra, Will Patton and James Cromwell-all serious and talented actors.
Thats why the title is ROMEO is Bleeding.Gary Oldman makes one of his strongest performances and the same can perhaps be said for Olin, who is very convincing and menacing in her part as the deadly seductress whose only aim is to devour everything in her path.
The storyline was good and I was not bored for a second, I was interested in what was going to happen next throughout the movie so the pacing was well adjusted.The film is a film noir set in the 90s with a sort of New York we have not seen before.
Oldman plays a detective named Jack Grimaldi who sells out witnesses to the Mob but meets his match when he attempts to sell out Mona Demarkov, a Russian hit woman who is as clever and dangerous as she is gorgeous.
which strictly speaking should not be stealable in the first place.I mean, on the surface this is one of those oddball in-color "film noire" gangstery films which Hollywood has become so fond of recently.It has an especially clever script and reminds me in subtle ways of the many cross-arcs in Lucky Number Slevin.The two stars Gary Oldman and Lena Olin both do not usually get the chance to do a star turn, they are both very under-used as primary characters, and that should be the end of the review.But it is not.
director medak has produced a movie classic; lena olin and gary oldman give (by far) the most outstanding performances of the year in this very complex tale.
Classic elements of film noir are represented: the shadowy and dark city, the jazz score, the cop on the take, the wife, the mistress, the mob, the double crosses, the sad end.
The whole film shows his progression from a corrupt cop who cheats on his wife to a man fighting for his life, then to someone trying to do the right thing and finally to what we see at the end.
There are a lot of actors who made their initial claim to fame through their "dangerous" persona, Tim Roth, Nicolas Cage, Mickey Rourke, Jack Nicholson and in more recent years Colin Farrell, to which I say puh-leeze.Ladies and gents I give you Gary Oldman -True Romance, Leon, Immortal Beloved, even Air Force One, he plays a crazy better than almost anyone.In Romeo Is Bleeding Oldman is out-crazied by Lena Olin.Big time.Oldman plays Jack, a corrupt cop who takes money from organized crime by selling out informants, witnesses and such.
Jack also juggles a wife, a girlfriend and a roving eye, which leads him to get caught by the FBI trying to get it on with a Russian hitwoman he is supposed to be handing over, (enter Lena) as Mona.Mona gets away, the underworld (headed by Roy Scheider) is p****d, and tells Jack to finish the job personally, or else.Jack was already a little stressed but this tweaks it up a notch, what with his girlfriend and wife both threatening to leave, and when he finds Mona she counter offers with a payment to tell the bad guys that she has been killed, assuming by the time they work out they were duped she will have left the country.The basic lesson here is don't trust anyone, by the time Jack sorts himself out he has Mona and the mob trying to kill him, he loses a couple of toes to the latter at one stage, and over a few meetings works out than Mona is absolutely nuts, and will do anything necessary to get what she wants, and I mean anything.Everything about this film is just a bit off kilter, meaning that at times it can feel quite surreal.
I have heard some people worship this film and place it right at the top of their all time lists, and they have every right to, though having seen it a couple times I just don't get it personally.What I put that down to is I think everyone has a phase where they decide what it is that they actually like, as opposed to what they think they should like, believe it or not some never work this out.This in large part explains Gwen Stefani's mainstream success.During the immediate period after you make your decision you upgrade anything a couple points, for me this caused me to elevate movies like "Tremors" and "Deep Cover", and I suppose for some "Romeo is Bleeding" is their example.Final Rating – 7 / 10.
You need to watch the terror.Gary Oldman shines as the corrupt sergeant and Lena Olin is perfect as Mona the assassinIt is a great renter..
Lena Olin is vicious, frightening and extremely sexy in this offbeat film noir about a corrupt cop (Gary Oldman), his bored wife (the beautiful Annabella Sciorra) and his dimwitted mistress (Juliette Lewis).
But, it's consistently alive and truly a unique film experience.There is an insane sequence towards the end when a handcuffed, blood soaked Lena Olin wraps her legs around Gary Oldman's head while he's driving a speeding car.
Okay heres the plot- Jack (Gary Oldman) has a wife (Annabella Sciorra), has a mistress (Juliette Lewis), earns $56,000 as a cop and gets $65,00 from the mob for everytime he works for them.
YMMV.Gary Oldman does some of his better work in this movie, but Lena Olin Rocks My World.
I really don't think this is a neo film noir masterpiece some would have you believe it is - it's messy, a little unbalanced and plods occasionally, but it does round up a remarkable cast, employs an inspired Mark Isham soundtrack to great effect and has its stellar moments, namely every time Lena Olin, the true engine of this film, is anywhere to be seen on screen, and for that reason only the movie is worth spending time on.
Policeman Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) gets involved with seriously disturbed assassin Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin).That's about all I'll say--the plot is VERY convoluted.
This guy has never done a bad movie, and his one talky scene is actually a pretty good one, certainly the best in the film.
This is one of the weirder movies I've seen - so you get about 90 min of incredibly bloody violence and over the top sex scenes (I'm not too surprised this seems to have sunk Lena Olin's career), and then it ends on this most incredibly sad note.
Gary Oldman and Lena Olin star in this dark thriller about a corrupt cop called Jack Grimaldi.
Acting is great, Oldman, is really excellent; pay attention to the parts with Mona, when Jack is looking at her, his face when he watches Demarkov's hand at the beginning is really priceless.
BIG SPOILER AHEAD:The movie has an interesting point of view about good: it doesn't pay and makes us suffer, but for Jack, evil didn't worked either; which immediately lead me to think that what matters is who is weak and who is strong, those are the ones that win.
Good movie, especially for Lena Olin's acting..
Gary Oldman is at his best, combined with Anabella Sciorra's innocent and lovely looks, Juliette Lewis' child-lazy acts, and Gena Olin's violent acts, this movie finally make it's shots.The ending, although I've seen it in some Hong Kong movie, is still much original.
There aren't a lot of actresses who can out-menace Gary Oldman but Lena Olin absolutely pulls it off.ROMEO IS BLEEDING is not perfect.
The mayhem that follows then becomes very violent, not always credible and full of surprises.One of the best things about this movie is its tremendous cast which features people of the calibre of Dennis Farina, Juliette Lewis and Annabella Sciorra in supporting roles and Roy Scheider who's exceptionally good as the intimidating Falcone.
Gary Oldman is perfect in a part that could almost have been written for him and Lena Olin seems to thoroughly enjoy portraying all the antics of her ruthless, sadistic and completely unhinged femme fatale."Romeo Is Bleeding", with its stylish direction, top-class cinematography and atmospheric score is often lurid, sensational and over-the-top but its comic-book style is perfectly suited to the nature of its characters and its fast-moving plot..
Franticly looking around for a Neo-Noir to watch for a poll that was being held on the Classic Film board for the best movies of 1993,I was disappointed to find that my original choice of Neo-Noir viewing in John Dahl's Red Rock West was being sold at a too expensive price.Not giving up on tracking down a Noir from 93,I was thrilled,when after spending an hour of searching around everywhere online,I finally found a Neo-Noir that seemed to offer all of the dark delights that I had been searching for.The plot:Frustrated over his job being at a standstill and there being a huge gap between his dreams and the money in his wallet,police officer Jack Grimaldi decides to become an informant for a powerful gangster called Don Falcone,with Grimaldi's leaked details to the mob over current police investigations being exchanged for more cash than Jack has ever seen,which leads to Grimaldi deciding that the only safe place where he can safely keep this vast bundle is in a sewer drain,that is based in the back garden of the house which he lives in with his wife,Natalie.Happy over now having enough cash that allows Jack to buy whatever he and Natalie dream of,along with also being able to afford keeping a mistress/girlfriend on the side for the first time ever,Jack accepts Don's new request of helping to "get rid" of a former friend/fellow gangster of Falcone's called Mona Demarkov,who along with currently being held by police,is also being very vocal in saying that she is now bigger and more powerful than Falcone.Planning to get rid of Don's "problem' right away,Jack finds from the moment that his eyes set on Mona,that he becomes tantalised by the alluring sensual powers that she posses,which leads Grimaldi to excitingly suspect that he has finally met a Femme Fatale,who will turn out to be more deadlier than any of the "Julliets" that Grimaldi has spent his life being round.View on the film:Proving that Neo-Noirs do not just come from "a mans world",the fantastic screenplay by Hilary Henkin gives the movie a deliciously Black Comedy scar deep across both its cheeks,with Henkin showing Jack Grimaldi's (played by a wonderfully scrambled Gary Oldman) happiness over feeling the garden drain with a newly discovered flow of cash,slowly transform into an addiction,where the whole meaning of his existence lays in continuing to make his money pit go "deeper" by any means necessary.Working closely with the precise editing of Walter Murch,cinematography Datiusz Wolski and director Peter Medak shoot this terrific Neo-Noir in stylish low angles,which along with showing how "low life" the characters are,also creates a strong subtle atmosphere for the viewer that they are seeing Grimaldi's life slowly sink into the pit,which he has unintentionally dug out for himself.Along with the stylish low angles,Medak and Murch also give the film a surprisingly surreal edge by revealing the unrolling state of mind that Jack finds himself in,from having nightmares in a fairground ride,to seeing every woman that he has gone with aim a gun at him.Featuring not 1,but 3 Femme Fatale dames!,each of the actresses show a determination in making their own pointed-heel mark in being the leading dame of this Neo-Noir,with Annabella Sciorra slowly revealing a real bite as Natalie,whilst Juliette Lewis brilliantly shows Grimaldi's girlfriend/mistress Sheri finding out that she has gotten too close with sinister folk who will now not let Sheri going back to her normal life,and steaming up the screen the moment she arrives,the beautiful Lena Olin mixes a strong,erotic sensual appearance,with a psychotic,demon like laughs that leads Jack to realising how deep in his self created money pit he has sunk..
Films that at first are panned and forgotten that finally through the filter of time get interpreted right.A Neo Noir whose all star cast is excellent but actress Lena Olin steals every scene she is in.The narrated story revolves around the decent of NYPD Sergeant Jack "Romeo" Gramaldi into Noirsville.
Oldman drives this modern day Film Noir movie.
Much like that movie, "Romeo Is Bleeding" is made by the intensity brought to the screen by Oldman in this film noir-esquire type thriller.Oldman (Leon: The Professional) stars as Detective Jack Grimaldi, a cop who is on the take with the local mafia.
Along the lines of film noir, Mona is the main cause of Jacks downfall, and Lena plays it perfectly.
He did a great job of bringing us a modern day film noir movie.
This is not a movie for everyone, especially women, so if you feel like watching a decent film noir flick, rent this, just pay attention to every thing and you will enjoy it.
The movie has a great sense of atmosphere, and talented actors (Lena Olin in particular), but the story is a complete mess.