Review of Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) by Alex P — 06 Aug 2007

Alright. Think of this in its context. Released in 1997, when Kiefer was in a major career slump; 5 years since his great supporting role in "A Few Good Men" and 5 years from becoming Jack Bauer, he was mired in shit like "Eye for an Eye" with Sally Field. A small role in "Time to Kill" did nothing to resurrect his dormant career. Nobody wanted to see a movie just because Kiefer was in it. Also, in 1997 cinema was at the height of the post-modern Tarantino craze, when every other movie released had a botched drug heist and the bad guys being pursued by the good guys (cops) and the worse guys (mafia). It also meant that you had to have ridiculous, inconsequential non-sequitur dialogue. Every screenwriter wanted to create the next "Royale with Cheese" bit.

So when this came out, it flew considerably under the radar, and now, ten years later it remains almost completely forgotten.

But the story being told is hardly cookie cutter, and the cast is jam-packed with great actors doing great things. Kiefer Sutherland plays the anti-Bauer, and he is fantastic. Also starring Vincent Gallo (whom I loved in Buffalo '66), Kevin Pollak ("Usual Suspects"), Kim Dickens (Deadwood), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba in "Forrest Gump"), Martin Sheen (benevolent president in "The West Wing", malevolent mob hitman here), James McDaniel (NYPD Blue), Rick Rossovich (Navy Seals), Max Perlich ("Beautiful Girls"), the late great Rod Steiger and John C. McGinley (overrated in "Scrubs" and underrated in EVERYTHING ELSE).

Everyone does great work. Kiefer proves to be an able director, as well.

My advice to you is to find a copy of this film and watch it. If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading. The rest is packed with spoilers.

The problems with this film are few and small: the soundtrack is obtrusive, with songs being played over anything that doesn't contain dialogue. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't detract from the few legitimate uses of music: the opening sequence of Gallo's Ray Lembecke getting out of jail and reuniting with Kim Dickens as his true love Addy; the practical usage of the '50s classic "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To" to cover up the screams of a torture victim; and the beautiful artistic usage of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" over the death scene of Ray and Addy.

The character-building and plot driven dialogue is great (I'm thinking of Ray's line to Pollak's Gordo after he claims his killing of a man in a parking lot brawl as being self defense: "Self defense? That's not self defense. Self defense is I hit you, you hit me. Not I hit you, you kill me. That's not self defense." Gold.).

However, there's a lot of non-sequitur conversations that do nothing for the film at all (like the hotdog vs. breakfast burrito debate and the monologue about why Williamson's Marcus doesn't do blind dates--it doesn't do anything for his character development because by this time we know he's an undercover DEA agent and therefore probably making this story up; if you give this monologue to Gordo, you do so much more with it. It builds his character and gives him an opportunity to try and make friends with the robbers in his midst, which is his superobjective in this film).

Also, much as I like Williamson as an actor and enjoy his performance in this film, I can't buy his gangsta Marcus as being a part of this group of whiteboy thieves. Maybe the DEA would better serve themselves putting him undercover in Compton or inner-city Baltimore, and get the greasy haired redneck to bring down this particular gang. If this character were of the appropriate age in 1968, he would have been President of the Black Panthers. He's that black.