The Salton Sea

Dir: D.J. Caruso

2002

***

D.J. Caruso's neo-noir drug trip is visually stunning but also rather confusing. Neo-noirs rarely work in my opinion but Caruso's style here is nothing short of sublime with nearly every scene looking more gorgeous than the next, with vibrant colours looking just as chic as classic black and white. If I was rating the film on visuals alone then it would be a five star film, no question, unfortunately though the convoluted script and some dubious performances let it down somewhat. The cast is impressive; Val Kilmer plays it cool and Peter Sarsgaard is good in an early role. Adam Goldberg is Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzman is a gangster and Danny Trejo a henchmen while Doug Hutchison and Anthony LaPaglia play a couple of dirty cops. It's casting by numbers circa 2002. It was nice to see favourites B.D. Wong, Meat Loaf and R. Lee Ermey but neither actor is given his fair share of screen time. However, it is Vincent D'Onofrio's villainous 'Poah-Bear' I have the most issue with. His character is said to have done so much blow that his nose had literally fallen off. In most scenes we see him with a prosthetic but there is one particular scene whereby we see his lack of beak in all its glory. This makes him just that little too gimmicky for me. It lets the film wonder into the wrong kind of humour, a film whereby humour just isn't welcome. There are certain scenes whereby the audience is supposed to feel dread, intrigue and suspense but never does, maybe this is what drug life is really like but I'm not sure this was the intention. This is a rare example of a film whereby the sum of its parts are greater than the whole, it can go from sluggish to high-octane within seconds but never really works as one piece which is rather frustrating but just about forgivable, purely because it just looks so darn pretty.