Pros: Fine script, Excellent character study that takes you back and forth between the drug dealing murders and policemen, Very fine camera work, Excellent acting
Some movies are remembered because they are breakthrough films for major screen stars. Diner is pretty ordinary, but Barry Levison’s Baltimore film introduces Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Kevin Bacon, and Mickey Rourke as major actors. Likewise, George Lucas’ early film American Grafitti gave a major boost to numerous aspiring actors like Richard Dreyfus, Ron Howard, and Harrison Ford.
In one sense, you can look at One False Move in this light, as it marks the first major lead acting role for Bill Paxton and the first significant role for Billy Bob Thornton, who also makes his screenwriting debut with this film. However, I look at One False Move as one of the finest films ever made in the crime genre and as one of the best films to come out of the 1990’s.
It’s shocking to think that this film actually sat on the shelf for a whole year simply because the producer couldn’t find a distributor to take it. Fortunately, the film was recognized at a few independent film festivals and gained enough critical support to eventually gain wide release, but One False Move played in more arthouse theaters than it did multi-plexes. Thus, many people have overlooked this gem.
Director Carl Franklin’s film is nothing like his later Devil with a Blue Dress or One True Thing and won’t appeal to everyone. Don’t expect Meryl Streep to open up the tear ducts here. Instead, the film opens in Los Angeles with one of the most brutal drug dealing killings ever filmed, yet Franklin’s camera makes you believe that you’ve seen more blood than what is actually on screen. If you’re feeling disoriented during the violent scenes, Franklin deliberately uses a lot of close shots and cuts, allowing your mind to flesh out the vicious and heartless violence far more artistically than anything in Natural Born Killers.
Plot synopsis
The two ruthless drug dealers here are prison buddies Ray Malcolm (Thornton) and Pluto (Michael Beach), but these two are hardly close friends. For one thing, Ray is white, generally angry, and pretty dumb while Pluto is black, and calculating with an IQ of 150. Add to that mix the sultry, racially mixed Fantasia/Lila (Cynda Williams), who mixes compassion with manipulation to control the course of action. She is tied in here because she is Ray’s girl, which heightens the tension especially in the motel room scene where she begins making love with Ray while an indifferent but underlying jealous and hostile Pluto looks on.
The murderous drug dealers are headed east to Star City, Arkansas where Fantasia has a past. Her family remains in the run down small town, which has one local café on main street and a Mayberry style sheriff nicknamed Hurricane (Paxton), probably because he seems to be the only person in the laid back town with any energy. When he gets the call that the killers are headed his way and that two big time cops from Los Angeles are going to join up with him, Hurricane gets pumped up. This is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened in his town.
So the stage is set for the inevitable climax, only this time the bad guys are heading for their High Noon style showdown as the good guys wait. There are some interesting and creative plot twists as the film proceeds, but One False Move primarily rises above the usual police genre fare and evolves into an excellent character study made more intense with its format of switching points of view, primarily between Fantasia and Hurricane.
What works well
Franklin handles Thornton’s script expertly with his direction and camera choices. Take note how the scenes with the drug dealers are filmed with the camera generally taking Fantasia’s point of view. It’s a logical choice, as she isn’t the hardened criminal that Ray and Pluto are, so we experience her horror at Ray’s loss of control as he beats up her friends. We feel her conflict when Ray orders her to find the missing kid, realizing that Ray will heartlessly kill him to protect their crime from the only possible witness.
We are much more sympathetic towards her point of view because we sense that she’s not a horrible person at heart, but has fallen in with the wrong people and has made some bad choices which are not always under her control. But we see her maneuver Ray with her sexuality and later attempt to change her fate when she meets up with Hurricane. It’s a credit to Williams’ ability to pull this off, considering that she had only had a relatively small part in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues previously. Her scenes with Thornton come across authentically, certainly helped by the fact that she and Thornton were in love during the filming and would soon be married briefly before divorcing.
Paxton has done a lot of fine work in subsequent films like Apollo 13 and A Simple Plan, but his performance in One False Move is the one that stands out for me. He develops sheriff Hurricane as a many faceted character, who will enthusiastically talk about his dreams of moving to the city to fight major crime with the veterans one minute but communicate embarrassment the next when he realizes that the LA policemen see him more like Don Knotts of Mayberry. There are also some telling scenes with his wife and with Fantasia that communicate a great deal about his inner challenges as well. Like much of Hitchcock’s work, there is no clear cut distinction between good and evil, and One False Move demonstrates Hurricane’s conflicts along with Fantasia’s.
While the roles of the other characters are less developed, there are some nice individual touches. One of the LA policemen has a brief scene that demonstrates his job related alcohol problem, and Hurricane’s wife (aptly played by Natalie Canerday, who will later star with Thornton in Sling Blade) demonstrates a great deal of wisdom and awareness while doing the traditional southern woman’s role of keeping up the household.
After A Simple Plan and Sling Blade, we know that Billy Bob Thornton act flat out act. His character is fairly one-dimensional here, but he does demonstrate varying degrees of anger and rage while showing a conflicted tenderness towards Fantasia. Meanwhile, Michael Beach stays within the cold-hearted limits of his character, effectively communicating primarily through his eyes and through his body language.
Also effectively contributing to the relentless intensity of One False Move is director Carl Franklin. He has directed some bigger budgeted movies, but none as finely crafted. I continue to marvel at some of the transitions that link the murdering drug dealers and the waiting officers together. Especially chilling is the first switch when Fantasia searches the apartment for the missing child that leaves us wondering what has happened back in L.A. Not to worry. Franklin knows Hitchcockian technique, and his camera will reveal the desired puzzle piece soon enough.
I also like the pacing of the film and the subtle camera changes Franklin engineers from the tight, close shots in the opening sequences that show the drug dealing and subsequent killings to the later wider shots in more laid-back Arkansas. Franklin also doesn’t overdo the action sequences by overlaying them with smaltzy John Williams musical scores, instead using a local blues harp player to intensify the moment of converge between the killers and the police.
Of course this movie isn’t for everyone. Some scenes are incredibly intense and violent, but if you can see your way through this, you will be in for a tremendous character study that blurs the clear black and white distinction between good and evil. One False Move was never designed to be a feel good, multi-plex style blockbuster, but it does deserve to be picked up from the rental stores from people who enjoy watching a well made film.
African-American director Carl Franklin's ONE FALSE MOVE presents itself as a crime thriller but upon deeper inspection reveals itself to be a thought...More at Family Video
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