I rather liked this movie in young adulthood but totally forgot what happens in it, besides a happy ending. Since Quentin Tarantino wrote it, you know it's not just a romantic comedy/drama; it's an R-rated crime flick with antiheroes. At least having Tony Scott direct instead means there's no fixation on a woman's bare feet.
Detroit comic store clerk Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) hits it off with Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) before knowing she's a call girl hired by his employer as a birthday present. Nonetheless, she does fall for him, and they elope. Hearing how rotten her pimp Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) is, Clarence confronts him, ends up killing him, and orders another call girl to pack Alabama's things. Only after Clarence takes the suitcase home does he see that it's full of stolen cocaine bags. He hopes to sell it fast in L.A., but he'll have to worry about getting tracked down by previous owners as well as police.
There are quite a few more familiar names involved, several from other Tarantino works: Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Samuel L. Jackson, Val Kilmer, Chris Penn, Bronson Pinchot, Saul Rubinek, Tom Sizemore...oh, and a distinctive score from Hans Zimmer. I'm afraid some of the talent is wasted on bit parts here, without the value of cameos. Meanwhile, Michael Rapaport gets a supporting role out of proportion to his cred, as an old friend of Clarence with connections.
In between Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino sure had a thing for White characters unabashedly saying the N-word. The existence of one such conversation here explains my "politically incorrect" tag. Of course, the R rating is more for violence and profanity, plus a fairly graphic sex scene and, yes, a little cocaine use.
So why did I like it? Probably for the interesting characters. I won't go into details, but none of them strikes me as cookie-cutter. As for the action sequences, one in a motel room makes good use of improvised weapons.
I wouldn't recommend TR to viewers who want to warm their hearts, even if it is better about that than usual for Tarantino. It's a watchable level of grit that just succeeds at straddling nigh immiscible genres.
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