Bobby Cooper is on his way to pay off his gambling debt to a Las Vegas loan shark. However when his car breaks down he has to wait in a small town until it is fixed. Unwittingly he is meets a beautiful woman and her husband, who offers him money to kill her. With the odds stacking up against Bobby he finds himself drawn deeper into greed, theft and murder.
This was a step away from political dramas and conspiracy thrillers for Oliver Stone, here he takes a standard film-noir plot and gives it his own touch. The plot is pure noir - full of shady characters, femme fatales, double crosses and murder, but it is compelling right till the end. It's thrilling to see Bobby become trapped in the town of Superior by a series of events (some coincidental, some deliberate) and unable to get away from the inevitable.
But what Stone does makes it even better. He films the whole thing in a style similar to that of Natural Born Killers, except not as graphic. He uses different film stocks, he cuts in different shots of characters while they voice over - the overall effect adds to the tension and the feeling of excitement. However he also makes good use of the wide landscape and uses long panoramic shots - this isn't a pop video director! Another great touch is the music - it's not moody like most noirs but instead mirrors the bright desert by being upbeat and unusual, the overall effect being a very quirky feeling.
The cast are roundly excellent and a great list of names. Sean Penn is totally believable as someone who tries to avoid the unavoidable and you do feel like he's trapped. Lopez has not been better - she is every inch the sultry femme fatale. Nolte is creepy as her husband, and does well mixing his gruff exterior with deeper guilt. Powers Booth, Joaquin Phoenix and Claire Danes are all good in minor but still important characters. Pleasant surprises exist in the rest of the cast with Jon Voight, Laurie Metcalf and Liv Tyler making cameos - although in the case of Tyler I found it more distracting than the others (she appears in the background as if the film is saying "look - it's Liv Tyler".
Overall an excellent criminally-ignored film with a great cast and the touch of a great director.
