Flesh and Bone

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 is not the glamorous pair up you'd expect from a matrimonial Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. It's a dark, grim and menacing tale of corrupted innocence, evil deeds and the sour fate that brings them full circle. Quaid plays Arlis Sweeney, a small time vending machine dealer with a dark past. His usual charm and appeal is gone here, a stormy, traumatized sheet on his face instead of that usual mile wide smile. Arlis harbors a troubling secret: He watched his no good criminal daddy murder an entire family when he was but a youngster, leaving him a haunted soul. His path crosses with rowdy, promiscuous Kay Davies (Meg Ryan) a girl with mysterious secrets of her own which eerily relate to Arlis's own past. When demon daddy re-enters his life, there's a thunderclap of portentous dread that mounts on the horizon like the ashen clouds of southern Texas where the film was shot. His name is Roy Sweeney, and he's played by a cackling James Caan, slithering into the skin of a character so unredeemable and nasty that we feel the slime emanating from the screen. He's a guy that danger follows around like a curse, and for better or for worse, Arlis must reconcile his own twisted mind and bring the legacy of bloodshed to a halt. Tagging along with Roy is a skanky and very young Gwyneth Paltrow, basically walking collateral damage. It's a heavy thriller with few breaks for breathing room, but it rolls with the violent, south western pulp we've come to love from artists like Cormac McCarthy and the like, adding it's own moody, laconic pace that heightens to unbearable tension with little notice and less flair, making it hit you all the harder. Supporting turns weigh in from Christopher Rydell, Barbara Alyn Woods, John Hawkes and character actor Scott Wilson as Arlis's dodgy business partner. Great stuff if you can shake the doom and gloom off after and hold onto the stark beauty and tragedy that it's laced with.

"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.

I'm not sure how many other fans of this excellent film realize that it's really an argument against determinism--in this case, biological determinism, but it could also be used as a valid refutation of environmental determinism. Father/murderer James Caan believes that since he himself is evil, and since his son's blood is the same as his, then his son Arlis (Dennis Quaid) must also have evil tendencies--as if Arlis is powerless to act otherwise. Arlis even buys into this nonsense: "It's not in your blood"; "If you're born to it..." He lives a solitary life, as if he's afraid that establishing a close relationship with someone would endanger them, because of the evil taint of his bloodline and his consequent evil potential--which isn't really there at all. But he realizes at the end that we all make our own decisions by means of our free will, and that our bloodline has nothing to do with that process. ("That's nothing. It's only blood.") Dostoevsky knew this too, when in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT or THE POSSESSED (I forget which) he shows how the revolutionaries of that era believed that "the environment" determines all human action--and he also saw how dangerous this idea is. The 20th century was a grim validation of his prophecies.

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.