This may've started out to be a decent, if not routine desert noir which slightly models Billy Wilder's cool noir classic, Double Indemnity. Writer/Director John Dahl had already proved that even a simple noir can be quite good (see Red Rock West). A con woman (Joanne Kilmer) and her sadistic boyfriend (Michael Madsen in his standard fare) get their hands on a fairly hefty loot of $75 grand. But, along the way, the woman decides she's heading to Vegas without him, and has a plan to separate the boyfriend from his share of the money.
Conveniently, a private detective (played by Val Kilmer in almost a mockery of 1930s pulp fiction) in Reno, the city in which the con woman winds up, is in dire need of a quick and easy $10 grand, which he in turn owes a bookie. As the protagonist of a noir drama, he is the usual once-innocent character who is tempted with greed and lust before redeeming himself morally (or at least as much as the viewer's sympathies will allow). The con woman shows up at his door and offers him just that, $10 grand immediately to fake her death. It doesn't look as though he buys the story about her abusive boyfriend, but of course, tainted with such foolishness, he acquiesces and falls in love with her, leaving himself open for the usual noir double- and tripple-cross among greedy characters.
A simple noir with all its convenient connections, however, soon becomes too convoluted to take it seriously. Once you're to the point of the story where they're trying to fake her death, you might wonder how any of it would work, considering the plan they have is pretty ridiculous and lacks good attention to both detail and logic, even for a fictional film. Things just seem to happen so easily, and when you see the way they fake her death (along with the subsequent events) and are later supposed to believe that nearly every cop in Reno is looking for the private eye and the con woman, you wonder...what the hell kind of cops are these that this scheme worked in the first place? At this point, everything that follows just becomes too incredulous considering the events. Suddenly, despite all the conveniences that arise in the story, what started as a decent noir quickly falters.
If it is desert film noir or Sin City film noir you are looking for, you're probably better off sticking with Dahl's 'Red Rock West'; it may be routine and the story a series of conveniences, but at least it pays better attention to the detail to make it all work.
Conveniently, a private detective (played by Val Kilmer in almost a mockery of 1930s pulp fiction) in Reno, the city in which the con woman winds up, is in dire need of a quick and easy $10 grand, which he in turn owes a bookie. As the protagonist of a noir drama, he is the usual once-innocent character who is tempted with greed and lust before redeeming himself morally (or at least as much as the viewer's sympathies will allow). The con woman shows up at his door and offers him just that, $10 grand immediately to fake her death. It doesn't look as though he buys the story about her abusive boyfriend, but of course, tainted with such foolishness, he acquiesces and falls in love with her, leaving himself open for the usual noir double- and tripple-cross among greedy characters.
A simple noir with all its convenient connections, however, soon becomes too convoluted to take it seriously. Once you're to the point of the story where they're trying to fake her death, you might wonder how any of it would work, considering the plan they have is pretty ridiculous and lacks good attention to both detail and logic, even for a fictional film. Things just seem to happen so easily, and when you see the way they fake her death (along with the subsequent events) and are later supposed to believe that nearly every cop in Reno is looking for the private eye and the con woman, you wonder...what the hell kind of cops are these that this scheme worked in the first place? At this point, everything that follows just becomes too incredulous considering the events. Suddenly, despite all the conveniences that arise in the story, what started as a decent noir quickly falters.
If it is desert film noir or Sin City film noir you are looking for, you're probably better off sticking with Dahl's 'Red Rock West'; it may be routine and the story a series of conveniences, but at least it pays better attention to the detail to make it all work.