Alec B
Altman compulsively breaks up the dialogue scenes and expands the material. I understand the impulse but it does rob the play of its fast pace and dramatic tension. In any case I think Shepard's play can't work as a movie regardless of the direction or the cast
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/10/24
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Audience Member
Fool for Love got its start as a play written by American Sam Shepard as part of his Family Trilogy, which is really five plays. The others are Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, True West and A Lie of the Mind. Originally, Kathy Bates and Ed Harris were the May and Eddie, who are played in this film by Shepherd and Kim Basinger.
This is yet another bid for artistic importance for Cannon, who not only got a screenplay and lead role out of Shepard, but Robert Altman as director.
Set in Shepard's beloved American Southwest and expanding the play's smaller cast and setting with more characters and an entire motel complex — the crew used the other rooms for production — we discover May, who is hiding out in said hotel when her old flame Eddie shows up. They've been through make-up and break-up more times than we can probably count and she refuses him at every turn, claiming to have moved on with Martin (Randy Quaid).
Meanwhile, the Old Man (Harry Dean Stanton) acts as the story's Greek chorus, telling each of the main characters the information they desire. It turns out that he had two families in one town, which led to our leads being siblings without knowing it. After becoming lovers, Eddie's mother shot herself. Eddie has started to become his father, sleeping around without considering the emotions that are destroyed in his wake, such as The Countess (Deborah McNaughton), a revolving carrying love who keeps coming back to enact her revenge.
Cannon somehow released this film the same year as Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, Rappin' and American Ninja, which speaks to the sheer volume — and all over the place insanity — of what the studio released. Not many other studios released movies meant for Cannes as it also unleashed films born for the drive-in.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
Altman compulsively breaks up the dialogue scenes and expands the material. I understand the impulse but it does rob the play of its fast pace and dramatic tension. In any case I think Shepard's play can't work as a movie regardless of the direction or the cast
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
In my experience Robert Altman either makes really interesting but overly long films like Nashville (1975) or really long and intensely boring films like Quintet (1979). An outlier in his career is this Sam Shepard vehicle from 1984 that features Kim Basinger of all people giving a fantastic, Academy Award nomination worthy, performance as his romantic lead. The film has a major twist that I am going to reveal in this review and it really changes the way you view the film. I really love this film even though it is essentially a filmed play and I can find Altman to be over indulgent in most of his films. I would definitely recommend that you see this film as it is an odd, wonderful delight that really sticks in your head when considering how minimal it is in presentation.
May, Kim Basinger, is working at a small, derelict motel which Old Man, Harry Dean Stanton, seems to inhabit. Her life is disrupted when her possessive ex-lover Eddie, Sam Shepard, arrives and tries to convince her to move to Wyoming with him. When she refuses he begins to physically fight with her but it quickly becomes clear that this is a pattern for them and they are in a permanently on again, off again relationship. Dark secrets are revealed however as we spoiler: realize that Eddie and May are half siblings and that Old Man was the terrible father figure that they both had to live with.
The movie really accurately portrays an unhealthy relationship in which the two lovers are dangerously obsessed with one another and cannot function with or without one another. We are introduced to May as a capable slightly weathered young woman but with the arrival of Eddie she begins to make illogical decisions and her confidence seems shaken as he is able to sweet talk her into doing almost anything. The end of the film makes it clear that there is no way out for the two of them as even as Eddie abandons May we know she will continue to pine for him and he will return to her, win back her trust and the two will be passionately in love for a short time before he lets her down again. The inclusion of two characters with some redeeming features, Eddie has very few, makes the idea that they are toxic for one another more shocking because as individuals they are pleasant.
Basinger's performance, as I mentioned, shocked me in the amount of depth it contained as she portrays a woman who is a slave to love. She and Shepard have a powerful chemistry as the connection between them is strong but painful as we know that they are both family and lovers, uncomfortable relations to combine. She is not just a vulnerable sexpot here but a woman with a troubled history, a poor father figure, who is trying to get her life back on track. Basinger plays things very subtle here but embraces the physicality needed for the role and matches Shepard with her tortured expression. In this and The Natural (1984) she gives some of her best performances and I only wish we had seen more of her in this mode. I expect Shepard to be decent but not brilliant as his most entertaining roles have come from Steel Magnolias (1989) and The Right Stuff (1983), as he wrote the play this film was based upon I would hope he could understand the character he plays.
Altman doesn't do anything special with the shooting of or technical execution of the film and for that I am glad. If he had added dream sequences, extra characters or overlapping dialogue to the film it would have been too much and overwhelmed what is so great about the film. He lets Basinger, Shepard and the great screenplay shine and during the flashback sequences he chooses to shoot everything from far away letting Stanton explain how and why Eddie and May felt for each other even as children. For the certain type of Robert Altman fan who claims that even Health (1980) is a great film this is not the version of Altman that they want but if you enjoy Shepard's work then this is a film for you.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
A fairly confusing but bravely filmed movie.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I'm going to work myself through Robert Altman's oeuvre and this is not a great start!
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
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