Flesh and Bone

Arlis (Dennis Quaid) is a vending machine owner who roams from town to town in West Texas. Greatly disturbed by horrific memories from his childhood, Arlis fails to connect with the women he meets. He prefers trysts with married women where no strings are attached. All of this changes the day Arlis meets Kay (Meg Ryan). Running away from an abusive and spendthrift husband, Kay encounters Arlis in a bar under amusing circumstances. Soon after, she is traveling with him on his circuit and they are falling in love. Bliss, however, is short. Arlis' evil father (James Caan) re-enters the life of his son and Arlis must once again suffer the consequences of the ties that bind them. Will it be possible for Arlis to break free from his past and begin a new life with Kay?

This is, truly, one of the most haunting films ever made. The story is a multi-faceted study of the nature of good and evil. Quaid and Ryan give such depth to their doomed and complex characters that the viewer stays mesmerized as the story unfolds. Caan, too, is a wonder as the bad-to-the-bone father. As for the sweeping and lovely cinematography, it perfectly realizes the beauty and desolation that is west Texas. The final scenes are guaranteed to put a lump in anyone's throat, tears included. Recommended highly for discriminating movie fans everywhere.

You will never see Meg Ryan in a role like this. She was phenomenal and it is unfortunate she did not get more roles like this. Dennis Quaid and Gwyneth Paltrow were also excellent and these three make the film worth watching. James Caan is fine, but his role is so one- dimensional that no actor can do much with it, and indeed he didn't.

This film is a must see because of the characters. The plot is compelling and very dark, but the characters shine through and illuminate each other in a way that is unique because each character has dimensions that are not explained. Paltrow's character seems like a throwaway, but may be the most important of all. If I were teaching a course on film, I would select this one and ask the students to explain why it works. I usually think I know why a film is excellent, and yet after this film ended, I knew I could not put it into words. The purpose of this review is to suggest you watch this one if you get a chance because you may love it. Most who watched this movie were pleased but unenthusiastic. This film is much, much better than the 6.2 rating it had when I checked.

I've been thankful for many things during the strange journey that has been my life. Among them was that I had never seen nor heard of Gwyneth Paltrow before seeing Steven Kloves' unsung, too-often trashed work, Flesh and Bone. Although this film has been deemed unwatchable by some; primarily, I suspect, by those who simply cannot deal with Meg Ryan in any form, Flesh and Bone is entirely watchable and often engrossing.

I stumbled onto it by accident one afternoon, when the film I had paid to see suffered a projector crash, leaving me to wander the nearly empty multiplex at my leisure. Flesh and Bone, said the sign over the door. Hmm. supernatural thriller with voodoo elements? Well, not really, although the scene that greeted me as I entered: a very scary-looking James Caan, with shotgun, skulking through a shadowy interior, made me think my initial assessment had been close (I had entered its theater a few minutes after the film had started.) Just a few more minutes passed before I realized that I was in the presence of something, at the least, unusual. First, considerable time elapsed without Dennis Quaid flashing his '55 DeSoto grille grin even once. In fact, he was scowling like all getout. Meg Ryan barely smiled either and it was well into the film before she first flipped her hair (while talking about pickles). Very strange. Being something of a sucker for films that cast against type, I was getting pulled in. But WHO was the spooky chick who kept walking in and out of various scenes, shoplifting something in almost each case?

That was Gwyneth, of course. If she had played the role of the deeply alienated Ginnie later in her career, she certainly could have pulled it off, but the mystery of her character, the thing that made you try to imagine the circumstances that had created such a creature, would never have manifested. It just would have been Gwynnie playing Ginnie. I'll be honest, I've remained immune to the whole Gwyneth thing. To me, she's something like Gouda cheese; certainly edible, but best if you're in the mood for a snack with somewhat more aroma than flavor. I admit that I've always dug her Mom, Blythe Danner, among the most delicately fair of all cinematic flowers. But I loved Gwyneth Paltrow in this film, still do, and always will. I don't think she stole the show, as some seem to, but her perfectly-played Ginnie was absolutely essential to it.

The rather default brutality that lurks in Flesh and Bone could seem artificial, but against the historical backdrop of Texas, where it is set, the film's slant makes sense. Texas history has been drenched in blood and tragedy from the start; Cabeza De Vaca, the lonely, ignominous demise of the LaSalle expedition, which foundered and was swallowed up on its Gulf Coast in an attempt to navigate the Mississippi northward, conflict with Spain and Mexico, the Comanche terror, the slaughter of its vast buffalo herds, its rape by oil and cattle culture, Texas politicians (just hitting a few high spots). Merely passing through the state can give one the sense that a loose black hole is about, not a massive one, but big enough.

Flesh and Bone is a promenade of the gravitationally doomed. Everyone in the film seems to be drifting toward the event horizon of an unseen singularity, just beginning to be stretched out of shape. Closest to oblivion is James Caan's chilling Roy Sweeney, a character in the mold of Christopher Walken's very bad dad in At Close Range but chicken-fried to the brink of carbonization; a man for whom conscience is no longer even a concept. Plunging close behind is his son Arliss (Quaid), someone who, after matriculating under his father's brutal tutelage, has become an exile to his own life. His flickering soul is not quite dead yet, but give it time. Meg Ryan's Kay Davies, the unknowing survivor, as an infant, of the film's opening horror, is a type of gently tragic heroine one can see anywhere, but most often in the South, the most culturally monolithic and unforgiving region of an unforgiving America. (Texas is the West but also, most certainly, the South.) Free-form and fundamentally cheerful personalities like Kay's may not always fare well there, unless legitimized by kids and a ring; something her character is beginning to understand as she pops, drunk, out of a paper cake at a roadhouse hoo-rah. Paltrow's Ginnie is possibly the most recent gravitational captive, but she has entered the plunge with cryogenic conviction, forming a binary dark star with Caan's character.

I liked this little film enough to collect it and have never regretted it. There is real psychological texture, a noiresque sense of doom, convincing intimacy set against a vast West Texas backdrop, a house haunted by ghosts living and dead, a brief, poignant performance by the never-failing Scott Wilson, a great score by the brilliant Thomas Newman (I started watching the TV series Boston Public just to hear its opening theme music, which he composed) and a closing scene as mythic as that of any cowboy classic. The film's conclusion flirts a bit with improbability but still works because, dear friends, karma does exist. It's not just a hippie word. Leave the Anti-Megs to their own gravitational plunge and enjoy.

Very few false moments in this Sydney Pollack ensembled film. Steven Kloves shows skilled insight as both writer and director here, putting fine oblique touches to his dialogue, applying a steady observant eye (with DP Phillipe Rousselot's help) to the blocking and shooting, and using Thomas Newman's music to optimum effect. His sparse and well-placed music cues highlight the great writing by Tom Newman here, which is of a quality equal to Newman's later score for Horse Whisperer. TN is truly one of the most evocative composers working in film this decade.

Flesh and Bone features the best acting I've ever seen Meg Ryan do, though she won't probably cite it herself, any more than Sarandon cites Lorenzo's Oil. Disregard the flack. Serious character work going on here if you want to see what Ryan can really do.

Her hubby Dennis Quaid antes up too, combining sullen, well modulated internal work with a wry vocal tone and a great understanding of his character's moment to moment decision making. No rakish charm here.

Paltrow is surprisingly edgy and cynical, although mostly a foil for Ryan and Caan. Caan is workman-like, effective, but a hair hammier than the rest. Luckily the script and director don't give Jimmy too much rein; he's done better (For fine Caan see Chapter Two or Thief). Overall, Flesh and Bone is a solid nine drama, well worth renting, and graced with a few story surprises. Real film buffs will be gratified.

"Flesh and Bone" remains to be one of the great films of the nineties, sitting alongside "Bright Angel" as one of the decade's most tragically neglected classics. Perhaps the fact it contains such a high degree of subtlety was why it wasn't appreciated when it was first released, the most frequently stated criticism being that its climax is dramatically unsatisfying, yet its somber ending works perfectly. Outside of "Hurlyburly" it is unquestionably Meg Ryan's finest performance, the same going for Quaid who gives his character a quiet desperation that becomes quite devastating by the end. Caan is great as always, but it is Paltrow who really impresses, playing a role bereft of the sugary sweetness that plagued the majority of her roles that followed. Scott Wilson also shines in a small but memorable role. "Flesh and Bone" may never receive the attention it deserves, which is a shame because it is unquestionably a lyrical masterpiece, beautifully shot and acted, recalling those low-key gems of the seventies like "The Rain People". Highly recommended.