Red Rock West

Michael (Nicolas Cage (Zandalee)) is down on his luck and desperate for a job.  He eventually wanders into a bar in Red Rock, Wyoming only to get a cup of coffee but is mistaken for a hitman.  Wayne (J.T. Walsh (Blue Chips)) wants his wife, Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle (Twin Peaks)), dead so he’ll get a bunch of money.  Since Wayne hasn’t seen the killer before he doesn’t realize this is the wrong dude.  After not thinking it over at all Michael decides to take the job and pretend to be the original man hired.

Sounds like a pretty clever setup actually with the mistaken identity part handled simply.  Sometimes these movies twist themselves into such knots trying to make this plot element work, but here it feels more natural.  It’s a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the need for work.  It doesn’t go beyond that which is enough and I appreciate that. 

Oh, did I mention that Cage does some shirtless
one arm pushups in the middle of the fucking road
in this?

And coincidences abound in this film.  At first it seems ridiculous, like when Michael makes his visit to Suzanne, get this for a change, she ends up hiring him to kill Wayne instead.  And then the real hitman, Lyle (Dennis Hopper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Waterworld)), shows up which stirs things up and Wayne is also the sheriff and no matter what Michael does he can’t get out of Red Rock and etc.  You’d think all of this shit would make for a frustrating viewing but I do believe all of this is intentional.  There are so many coincidences and different turns that it becomes part of the fun of watching everything unfold.  After I caught on to what the filmmakers were doing I got into seeing how far they would take it.

So the mindset is different than your traditional thriller.  I mean Michael is genuinely a good guy who (and I promise this is not a spoiler) has no intention of killing anyone.  He just uses opportunity to scam Wayne and Suzanne out of a couple of bucks and skip town afterwards.  I guess he figures they’re terrible people anyway, fuck ‘em, take the money and run.  It’s because he’s not a bad person, at least by extreme comparison to everyone else in the picture, that you feel sorry for the crazy situation he’s in and you want to see him pull through.

Writer/director John Dahl (The Last Seduction, Rounders) doesn’t go for any fancy cinematography or production design.  Everything you see is very straightforward.  And that’s fine if just a touch bland.  It makes sense that he would transition into directing TV where that style is needed when you’re on a tight deadline schedule (I just want to point out that he’s worked on some huge shows in the last few years like Breaking Bad, Dexter, Homeland and House of Cards).

This is clearly a Cohen brothers inspired movie a la Blood Simple but that’s definitely not a bad thing.  The absurd plot twists, coincidences and performances make for a good time.