True Romance ---- **1/2 (out of 5) (1993)
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman
Director(s): Tony Scott
Screenwriter(s): Quentin Tarantino
Released on: September 10, 1993
Reviewed on: April 22, 2005
Rated: R - for extreme violence, language, sex, and nudity
TRUE ROMANCE is one of those violent, sometimes melodramatic crime/love stories that can be a blast to watch if you find yourself in the ideal mood. Some films do it right, but TRUE ROMANCE is not particularly enchanting and doesn't rise as far above the rest of the genre flicks as it had the potential to do. It's fairly middle-brow, and if you aren't looking to be blown away by anything either outstanding or god-awful, then TRUE ROMANCE is a good in-between film to see.
Clarence Worley is a young man who loves Kung Fu movies and works at a comic book shop in Detroit. One night, he meets a prostitute (politely referred to as a "callgirl") named Alabama Whitman who he almost immediately falls head over heels for. She returns his love, and they suddenly decide to get married. However, Alabama is stuck in a bad situation with Rex, her pimp. After hearing of the cruel and immoral things that Rex does to his women, Clarence decides to pay a visit to him and let him know that Alabama no longer works under his regime. The confrontation is a bloody one, and before he realizes it, Clarence has killed Rex and has obtained a huge suitcase full of expensive cocaine. It turns out that the drugs belong to the mob, and Clarence and Alabama are forced to live on the lam while being hunted down by vicious gangsters.
From the start of the film, TRUE ROMANCE presents some problems. First of all, there's some contrivances, dealing with the title. From how quickly our two main characters decide to get married, we're constantly questioning whether this hot, steamy romance is really all that "true." They seemingly fall in love with each other overnight, but the dialogue they have beforehand doesn't show any real signs of a deep, growing affection. The date they have is disappointingly ordinary, and the ensuing sex scene that occurs on the same evening is completely unexpected. As the story plays out, the progression of events is not seamless and feels scattered, as if Scott/Tarantino weren't quite sure where the plot was headed. If TRUE ROMANCE was injected with a little more substance, it would probably be plausible enough to warrant three stars on my scale.
TRUE ROMANCE is violent, but shallow. It's decently-written, but not profound. It's passionate, but not real. Perhaps if the ending weren't so abrupt and formulaic and if the romance was more down-to-earth and relatable, it might have been a better film. It's not bad, but it's one of those stories that can exist only in the realm of Hollywood and can be enjoyed only if your brain is tuned specifically for fictional cinema.
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