U Turn

Oliver Stone, USA/France 1997, 125 mins

Oliver Stone is best known for his long-winded conspiracy films (JFK, Nixon) but his remarkable back catalogue contains others gems such as Wall Street, The Doors and Platoon. With U Turn, Stone delves into the dark world of noir with interesting results.

Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn) is heading for Vegas to pay off a gambling debt when his car breaks down in the small town of Superior. After leaving his car with the local mechanic, he meets up with the sultry Grace (Jennifer Lopez) and her husband Jake (Nick Nolte). Things start to go a little crazy when Jake suggests Bobby murders Grace for a share of the insurance money. Bobby refuses, but then he loses the cash he needs to pay off his debts in a robbery. As events spiral out of control, Bobby meets ever more eccentric characters. All he really wants to do is leave town - alive.

U Turn neatly takes the familiar noir narrative and relocates it squarely in Oliver Stone visuals country. More than a little reminiscent of John Dahl's Red Rock West (another good example of nineties noir), the film plays like a glorious pantomime with a host of famous faces tackling the various parts with gusto. What makes U Turn special is its humour. It's as if Stone got tired of the serious, mystical stuff and instead came up with a deliriously, deliciously, overblown farce. Mind you, there's still an out-of-place philosophiser at Superior in the form of Jon Voight's blind man but here it just adds to the surreal nature of the plot.

Resembling the mutant offspring of Natural Born Killers mated with Doc Hollywood, U Turn is that rarest of beasts: a genuinely enjoyable film.

Review by Neil Chue Hong
Taken from EUFS Programe Autumn 1999