Customer Reviews

Flesh and Bone

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This film is one of my favorites. The story is suspenseful and well plotted. The theme is universal, but if you're not from small-town western Oklahoma or western Texas, or have not spent extended time there, you may not fully appreciate what a fabulous job Kloves (a native of Austin TX) has done in this film -- and how underappreciated the film is. It is a true sleeper. Culturally, this movie is the Southwestern equivalent of a film about Native Americans written and directed by a Native American. Speaking as a native of the Southwest, it was so refreshing to see a movie set in the rural Southwest that broke from the stale stereotype of the typical "western" law & order, yahoo, or save the ranch movies --one that tells a compelling and suspenseful personal story in a culturally authentic manner, without a single sheriff in sight. "Blood" or family ties are sacrosanct in this region of the country, so the theme is very appropriate to the cultural context while remaining of interest to most viewers. Ryan's, & Cann's performances are respectable, but not exceptionally authentic culturally. I agree with the earlier critique of Ryan's portrayal, but she nevertheless does a pretty good job for a girl from Connecticut-- one that is more regionally authentic than Cann's! This was the first film I saw Paltrow in, and she played her jaded character so convincingly (Paltrow's character is a wandering con artist from parts unknown -- obviously not from the Southwest) that it took time to view her differently in later films. However, if your only exposure to "cowboys" is from western movies, country-western music videos, or city-born "drugstore" cowboys, and you haven't spent time around feed lots, and cattle auctions in Texas or Oklahoma, then you've never seen real "born and bred" country cowboys from the Southwest and you probably won't realize how remarkable and true Quaid's performance is. When I first saw this film years ago, Quaid's performance was so good -- so nuanced -- that I was sure he had to have grown up in the country of west Texas. Quaid captured the body language and subtle mannerisms perfectly. My husband and I love watching this movie and we never fail to marvel anew at Quaid's performance each time we see it. It is so rare to see a captivating film of this quality and authenticity set in the rural Southwest.

The ending of this fine film is hardly "senseless." The film is a refutation of biological determinism, although it could also be used to refute environmental determinism. After having been told by his evil father (James Caan) that they have the same bloodline--implying that this must make his son Arlis (Dennis Quaid) evil, just like his father--Arlis buys into this claptrap. "If you're born to it" and "It's not in your blood" are two of Arlis' typical comments. But at the end, when he says, "It's NOTHING--only BLOOD," he has finally realized that we all have free will and that we make our own decisions, bloodline or no bloodline. This film is truly Dostoevskian, PARTICULARLY the ending, which is as good a compliment as you can pay to any film. The great Russian novelist also saw the horrible danger in the determinist credo. Give this film 5 stars and send "A Viewer from Texas" back to school.

No one is less of a Meg Ryan fan than I. She is, entirely too cutsie for my taste. Not that she's bad to look at mind you. But in this film she is about as sexy, real, and sympathetic as possible. Her performance was perfect for the part.

Dennis Quaid gives his finest performance ever as the tormented son of James Caan.

It's pretty easy to see where the film is headed fairly early in the picture but it's so well acted and directed that it's well worth the price of admission. The film is extremely character driven including an incredibly cheap yet sexy Gwyneth Paltrow.

The movie has much to say about relationships, loyalty, selfishness and the price paid because of them.

From the openning shots to the last image image of this movie, every word of the script and every shot of the camera are related to the theme of the movie. So much so, one might think Edgar Allen Poe, not Steve Kloves, wrote the script. Flesh and Bone is not only a movie of dreadful pasts and drifting futures. It is also a test of two views of life: fate and free will. Kloves uses every symbol he can to impart this test to the audience, stars and words included. And guess what! He let's you decided! All in all, Kloves script is, by itself, great liturature. Quaid, Ryan, Caan, and Paltrow do amazing work in creating their characters and making them real to the touch. You just have to watch it twice. I seriously recommend this movie for English teachers!

She's scary, she's going to hurt you and you can't take your eyes off of her. James Caan's menace comes across as very real and horrifying. Some people are just no good and need to be taken seriously. This is a quiet, very sad and scary movie. Meg Ryan did a good job but it didn't change her image. Dennis Quaid as always was very good. Gwyneth Paltrow was scary but a relief everytime she had a scene. She was that smart and that pretty in this movie. I have no idea what Emma and Shakespeare in Love are like and I don't want to know but this movie showed early on why she gets picked for movies with strong directors.

Both Quaid and Ryan demonstrate the reasons why they've become so respected among members of their craft. The film is well conceived, well acted, well directed.

Steve Kloves' Flesh and Bone (1993) is a rare bird indeed, a movie with unassuming depths. A beautiful film, moving and eerie and almost mysterious in its effects, it has a grace and poetry all its own. And it went almost entirely unnoticed by the movie-going public. (Today it is perhaps best known, if known at all, as one of Gwyneth Paltrow's earliest featured roles.) It's easy to see why it disappeared without a trace: it's an incredibly subtle film by any standards, and compared to your average '90s fare, it barely "exists" at all. It's like a phantom, a hazy dream. Watching it is like passing through a roadside town, catching a glimpse of a diner and a bar, and imagining the lives of ordinary folk (never so ordinary as we think); then scratching the surface of their routines, and revealing the turmoil beneath. Flesh and Bone is a real road movie, maybe the best of them all, because it creates a perfect sense of people moving, forever moving, but never actually getting anywhere. The characters in the movie are like fish in a barrel, like flies in a sun-drenched room; their movement is central to who they are as people, and also to the meaning and the structure of the film, which is about rootlessness: a lack of having any place to go. All the characters in Flesh and Bone are restless; they are searching for something without knowing, or especially caring, what. They are simply moving because they cannot bear to remain still; like blood in the veins, perhaps.

From THE BLOOD POETS, by Jake Horsley
[...]

There is a thin line that movies like Flesh and Bone walk, its story line suggests an overwrought film, with loud scenery chewing acting and flashy camera work. This could have easily turned into a pointless variation on the pointless U-Turn. A credit then to director Steve Klove and his cinamatagropher Philippe Rousselot for creating a completely original beast. You may not know it from a plot description, but you will never see another film quite like this one.

In the film's arresting opening scene an expressionless grim looking boy stands outside a family's house late at night. He doesn't say a word except that he's lost. They let him in, and decide to let him stay overnight. But that's not all there is to it, the boy is actually working with his father on a scheme they've perfected hundreds of times before, where he waits till the family is asleep and opens the door to his father to come in and rob the place. Something goes terribly wrong that night, but the events that transpire in this scene will haunt every character in this film. This brilliant opening sequence grabs the veiwer's attention, and makes the slow burning tense plot that follows all the more mysterious.

Dennis Quaid stars as Arliss, a man who isn't much of a talker, "You're the best listener I've ever met" Kay Davies (Meg Ryan) tells him when they first meet. "Depends on who's talking" he replies. As events unfold, with a touch if a supernatural element we come to fully comprehend why he so unenthusiastic about life. "I'm a creature of habit" he says at one point, and by then we know exactly why he feels breaking established habits can be deadly.

The dialogue in this film, which is written by the director, literally stings. There are no throw away lines, or scenes that merely exist to push the plot forward. Every line is diliberate and calculated, queitly delivered by a cast who obviously relish this high quality stuff.

All four principle cast member are excellent. I've always admired Dennis Quaid since Breaking Away, Meg Ryan successfully sheds the light comedy persona, Gwenyth Paltrow delivers her lines with icey detachment and James Caan is chilling as a man who "values his sleep".

I'd love to see more movies by Steve Klove, he has only made one other film The Fabulous Baker Boys, and most recently he wrote the wonderful Wonder Boys. Seek this film out, it has a mood all its own.

Flesh and Bone is an evocative, haunting and rewarding study of a drifting man (played with understated, heartbreaking perfection by Dennis Quaid) who encounters a lost soul (Meg Ryan, outstanding)leaving a violent marriage and begins a tender relationship until a dark figure from his past shows up.

Plotted an as slow burning thriller, this is really more of a complex and intriguing character study of guilt, father-son ties, violent crime and doomed love. Flesh and Bone is a bleak but supremely well crafted film that reaches a truly sad (though inevitable) conclusion. The final moment between our two main characters is incredibly moving (in a very unsentimental sort of way) and a scene that I will never forget. I didnt mind the major plot twist as its no more unbelievable that a dozen of Hollywood's most praised suspense thrillers. The spare, atmospheric photography (set in a desolate, bleak Texas) is exceptional and Thomas Newman's suberb score will get under your skin.

For those who wont something altogether deeper, affecting and more emotionally satisfying with their thrillers (or love stories), Flesh and Bone should be ripe for rediscovery.

This is from the director of "The Fabulous Baker Boys", also "fabulous". Although Kloves wrote the script here, you would have sworn that Jim Thompson, of gritty novel and film noir fame, did. There is the same theme of inescapable past as in "The Grifters" and a rather unknown, which is a shame, film, "After Dark, My Sweet". (which stars the grandson of Jackie Gleeson) Quaid and Ryan were superb. It was very dark and sparse. A winner.