By Curtis P. Ferree
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 9, 1997

'U-Turn' A Dead End

Arizona Daily Wildcat Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn) steers into a moral skid in "U-Turn."

Sex. Murder. Betrayal. More murder. An all-star cast.

Filmed in just 42 days on location in Superior, Ariz., "U Turn" chronicles the misfortunes of Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn), a man trying to pay off a huge debt to a Las Vegas mobster.

Bobby is on his way to Vegas, money in hand (a hand minus two fingers, compliments of the mobster), when a burst radiator hose occasions a layover in Superior, a town director Oliver Stone inhabits with an array of quirky, deranged people.

Through a series of improbable events, Bobby is caught in a feud between Jake McKenna (Nick Nolte) and his wife Grace (Jennifer Lopez). Each attempts to persuade Bobby to kill the other. Adventure ensues.

The film is an attempt to combine the old stranger-comes-to-town story popularized in such westerns as "For a Fistful of Dollars" with an element of black comedy and a '90s sensibility. It's in these last two areas that it begins to fail.

The comedy of "U-Turn" relies more on situation and Ennio Morricone's ("The Mission") cartoony score than on good writing. Billy Bob Thorton ("Slingblade") is very good in his performance as Darrell, the mechanic, and Joaquin Phoenix ("Inventing the Abbotts") is amusing as the town thug, but the numerous beatings Bobby takes gives the movie a slapstick quality that, combined with the overabundance of quirky characters, gives the movie a farcical feel that undermines anything more serious the story might be attempting.

Jon Voight ("Midnight Cowboy") plays a blind man who functions as a sort of Greek chorus, spouting cryptic and largely superfluous advice to Bobby. The character is unlike a Greek chorus, however, in that he provides us with no real information and lends no insight that is not already obvious. Voight's character is amusing only to whatever extent that his oddity might be appealing, rather than for any inherent wit.

Stone employs the same MTV-spawned, jerky camera movements that he utilized well in "Natural Born Killers." But, while this technique was useful and relevant to the larger themes of that movie, in "U Turn" it becomes merely irritating and distracting.

The movie runs long - 125 minutes. When it first looks like it's over, it isn't. When one then begins to hope it will end, it doesn't. And when it finally does end, one finds oneself asking "This is it? This is what I've been waiting for?"

Stone betrays his audience with an ending that is too contrived and meaningless in the face of the investment the movie demands of its audience and that depends too heavily on gimmicky plot twists.

Stone has also jumped on the huge cast bandwagon, which includes a small role for Claire Danes ("Romeo and Juliet") as Jenny, the redneck townie and Powers Boothe ("Nixon") as the town sheriff. Cameos also abound, including appearances by Julie Haggerty ("Airplane"), Laurie Metcalf ("Roseanne") and even an uncredited appearance from Liv Tyler ("Inventing the Abbotts") who was merely on the set visiting Joaquin Phoenix.

What this film ultimately lacks is a good story. The characters Stone gives us are more like caricatures than well rounded people we can understand. Their motivations are only vaguely hinted at, if mentioned at all. Although there are a few shining moments, such as the diner exchange between Jenny and Bobby and the good performances of Penn, Thorton and Phoenix, there is much to be desired here.

With "U-Turn" Stone takes us down a road we've been down too many times before and, though there are some interesting stops and scenery, at the end of the journey we find ourselves wondering what in the hell was so important that he dragged us all the way out to the middle of nowhere to see.