Product Details

• Actors: Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, Dan Aykroyd
• Directors: Steven Baigelman
• Writers: Steven Baigelman
• Producers: Carla Santos Shamberg, Danny DeVito, Eric McLeod, Erwin Stoff, Michael Shamberg
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 9, 1997
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304291868
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #307,613 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In his debut effort, director/writer Steven Baigleman put together an interesting premise and collected a talented cast to execute it. Unfortunately, he never sets the tone, so we are caught between a wildly black comedy and an emotionally brutal drama. A firmer footing in either genre would have better defined our reactions to it. Keanu Reeves plays Jjaks, a man so badly trod upon by fate that his very name is the result of a typo. He arrives back at his mother's house in a lower working-class Minnesota neighborhood to witness the marriage of his older brother (Vincent D'Onofrio) to an obviously reluctant bride (Cameron Diaz). By the time Jjaks is on his way, he's stolen a car, a dog, and his brother's wife. You have to give Baigleman credit for serving up intriguing characters. Unfortunately, he spins the story in circles instead of moving it along. Reeves and Diaz attempt to leave Minnesota, but never quite make it. Reeves repeatedly returns to a boyhood home he hates, always stumbling into his brother's angry clutches. What does work are the performances. Diaz is both sad and strong as the tough cookie who happens to be the smartest character in the movie. D'Onofrio's stupid nastiness is offset by his crushing love for her and an uncontrollable jealousy of Jjaks. Most surprising is Reeves, who makes us feel for his angry, unhappy loser by revealing flashes of decency under a toughened exterior. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tale of transformation., December 21, 2003

By 

Joni Kaighobadi "jonik71" (FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feeling Minnesota (DVD)

This is a remarkable movie, not only in it's unusual and very funny way of making the points that it does, but in that it is written from a point of view that is almost never seen from the all-too-privileged aristocracy to which most of the movie industry's writers and directors belong. This movie is almost painfully insightful into the mental state of hopelessness which traps people into sordid lives, particularly those who are raised in that sort of life and have never experienced anything else. The characters Jjaks and Freddie not only manage to envision a way out, together they fight their way to some measure of freedom in the end. They do so using the only tools and behaviors they know, which means that it is all very sordid indeed, but their goals are so much more noble than anything that could be expected from that environment, that it is very close to a miracle that they exist at all. It should be noted that those characters who have chosen to embrace the sordid life instead of resist it are relatively thriving at the beginning of the film (Sam, Ben Costikyan, etc.) Jjaks, who has been to prison before, may once have been like them, but if so, something must have happened to change him (before the story in the movie?). The movie shows Jjaks' transformation, opening his capacity for compassion and love for another, and finally gaining the courage to hope. Keanu Reeves really nails his character admirably, playing someone who feels more than is really safe to feel in his environment, and has developed a deeply engrained habit of hiding his feelings. Look carefully for the use of color to symbolize the different stages in his transformation, and the meaning of the dog too.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nickel & Diming, April 13, 2003

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling Minnesota (DVD)

I had a hard time grasping how a group of people is stealing (trading/swapping/owning) huge amounts of money from each other, yet individually looked, talked, acted, dressed, and lived like folks far below the poverty level.

Freddie (Cameron Diaz) is being forced to marry Sam Clayton (Vincent d'Onofrio) by Red (Delroy Lindo). For big, bad Red, it is a tidy transaction. Freddie supposedly stole ten thousand from him, and Red owes this amount to Sam. The film opens with reluctant Freddie in all her wedding finery racing madly down a dirt road in an ugly midwestern milieu chased by a muscle car filled with yowling raging men. Freddie loses and is perforce married to Sam (resplendent in a baby blue tuxedo and ruffled shirt) in an outdoor wedding held in the backyard of a very modest home. Enter Jjaks (unbeloved brother of Sam, Keanu Reeves), a loser from childhood days who is returning from a stint in the slammer. Freddie spots him after the nuptials, and for reasons best known to herself, looks to Jjaks as her salvation. He's supposedly going to get her out of the marriage and find the money that Sam has hidden. After a seduction of Jjaks subtle as a sledgehammer, they take off. The chase is on. The Clayton brothers steal cars like most people change their socks, so neither brother was ever short of transportation. After violent mayhem, dead bodies, and spectacular chase scenes, Freddie & Jjaks make their separate ways out of Minnesota and reunite (sorta).

"Feeling Minnesota" spared nothing in the talent department. Along with the principals, Tuesday Weld and Courtney Love had small roles as respectively, Mom Clayton and a dippy waitress. Special mention must go to Vincent d'Onofrio as unlovable, clumsy, hysterical Sam. He has a physical knack of stealing almost every scene he is in. Cameron Diaz gave the picture what little centeredness it had with her wanton, vulnerable, compelling performance as Freddy. Delroy Lindo as Red makes his character a tinderbox of menace and macho combined with heavy-handed good humor. I am always amazed at Keanu Reeves who can mumble his way through a stone faced performance; then smile once and collect big bucks and swarms of fans. He sticks to this winning combination in "Feeling Minnesota."

While overall enjoyable and with some great comic moments, the film teeters between dark comedy and wincing brutality. The viewer has a difficult time reconciling the entire experience. Unless you are a diehard Keanu Reeves fan, I think a rental will be enough.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up People!!, November 2, 1999

By 

"roren_79" (Dorchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feeling Minnesota [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie really is not that bad. It all depends on what kind of movie you like. If your touchy and don't like violence, don't see this movie, but if your in the mood for something that is not mainstream, by all means have some fun and see this movie. You have to realize that this is not meant to be taken seriously, and those who do will be disapointed. I liked this movie because it was funny, not in a nice way, but hey, who cares? Don't listen to these other people, they can't see beyond their own opinions enough to judge fairly. See it for yourself and then decide. This is a movie for fans of black comedy, who dislike their siblings, and love Keanu. It's not the greatest film, and was not meant to be, but it is certainly not as bad as these people are saying.