Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

My Robert Altman min-retrospective carried me back to his 1985 film of Sam Shepard's "A Fool for Love." From the Altman oral biography I know that Shepard wanted Ed Harris to play the role, as on on stage, but took it himself because Jessica Lange was going to play May. She dropped out at the last moment and Kim Basinger stepped in and delivered probably her best (and a completely unglamorous) performance opposite Shepard (and Randy Quaid as her date who is confused by the tension in the air at a remote New Mexico motel/diner wehre May works for her alcoholic and otherwise out-of-it father (Harry Dean Stanton, Repo Man).

Shepard does not think he was as menacing onscreen as Harris was onstage (and is miffed that Altman took off for Paris to edit the film without his participation). I think he is plenty menacing. Somewhat less so when the family secrets emerge in the last act.

Having difficulty getting financing during the 1980s, Altman made some very good movies with the words of the plays but a lot of camera movement and some opening up (Streamers, Come Back to the Five and Dime) though he also messed up some good plays (Indians, Beyond Therapy).

During the first half of "Fool," the camera frequently zooms in on characters. Throughout, cinematographer Pierre Mignot (who shot many 1980s Altman movies) provides some great reflection-in-window shots that would have pleased Fritz Lang or Michelangelo Antonioni with multiple planes (and neon...).

Altman's son Stephen began his series of production designs with this movie's, one that reminds me of "Bagdad Cafe" (preceding it by two years). In addition to roaming around the rundown outpost, Altman filmed the play's recollections as flashbacks. While this dilutes the power of the monologues onstage, filming the actors telling them would not work onscreen. What works really well onscreen are judicious closeups and shifting visual focus.

The feckless father, volatile son, and seeming femme fatale resemble those in many Shepard plays, and the two Wim Wenders movies of Shepard stories (Paris, Texas, 1984; Don't Come Knocking, 1995, the latter with Shepard and Lange onscreen). "Fool" is not Shepard's greatest play, but I am glad Altman convinced him to appear in the film of it. Though Shepard's plays are about males(' Oedipal dramas) and from a male point of view, Basinger dominates the movie — even with Shepard on hand to interpret his own words.

The DVD includes a 20-minute feature with Altman talking about adapting plays and not directing actors, a 3-screen text about "A Fool for Love," plus a trailer for the movie.

©2010, Stephen O. Murray

One last lean-n-mean IX contribution!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD