U-Turn
There’s a strong sense in this movie of Oliver Stone having a lot of ideas left over from making Natural Born Killers. It’s made very much in the same style, similar sort of soundtrack, similar photography by Robert Richardson, similar locales etc. It’s a much lighter movie in one way, a much darker movie in another.
Ennio Morricone turns in some of his best and most memorable tunes here (a double whammy that year with Adrian Lyne’s Lolita, I remember buying both CDs in one day and within 2 straight hours becoming a Morricone fan), the main theme instantly sets a mood and tone, while “Banjo in the Desert” is wonderfully spaghetti-western-ish, and “Old Family Souvenirs” and Grace’s theme accompany her sad backstory with perfect emotion.
This movie was, I think, the first time I saw Jennifer Lopez, when I saw it in the cinema in 1997, and it’s weird to watch her now. You can barely see any hint of the megastar she’s become in this performance. In my opinion, her acting has always far outshone her music (not that I’m saying either are particularly ground-breaking: here she’s practically identical to Salma Hayek’s character in Desperado), and it’s almost bizarre to see her in a movie like this now.
There’s a lot of odd cameos in this movie too – Liv Tyler appears for about 10 seconds as (let’s consult the IMDb) “Girl in Bus Station”, and Laurie Metcalfe has a hilarious moment breaking down as Sean Penn breaks down over being a few dollars short of a ticket price. Billy Bob Thornton, Claire Danes, Joaquin Phoenix and Jon Voight have near equally tiny roles, but they end up almost more memorable than the leads or anything else in the movie.
For all its little moments and details, though, U-Turn always seems to be missing something. It’s nearly 2 hours long when it should probably be more around the 90 minute mark. There’s something else missing. I have no idea what it is, but I know it’s missing.