One would think that if Oliver Stone could turn the lives of two deceased presidents ("JFK," "Nixon") into exciting, operatic cinema, he could make a tale of sex, money and murder in a hot and sweaty desert town jump off the screen. Unfortunately, in his first foray into non-political filmmaking in quite some time, Stone lays it on too thick for too long.
Gone are the political motives, history lessons and sense of importance often attached to his films. What we are left with is the visceral style he mastered in "Natural Born Killers" and a newfound sense of humor which tries and fails to turn "U-Turn" into raucous film noir.
Sean Penn is Bobby Cooper, a character so down-on-his-luck that he has already lost two fingers before the movie even starts. Things are looking up, though, as he travels across the desert in his Mustang convertible toward Las Vegas, where he will return the money he owes to the thugs who removed his fingers. But then his car breaks down and the nearest town is the run-down dust bowl of Superior, Arizona.
There he leaves his car to be fixed by Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton), a mechanic so dirty he could be Pigpen's older, psychotic brother. As he wanders into town Bobby comes across Grace (Jennifer Lopez) a sexy young woman who happens to need help hanging her drapes. Bobby happily offers his help, and other more personal services at her house, until her husband Jake, played by Nick Nolte, comes raging in.
After a brief, if all to practiced, confrontation, Jack and Bobby end up talking in private in which it is revealed that Jack wants Grace dead and is willing to pay Bobby to do it. Bobby declines because he has plenty of money and is planning on leaving Superior in a few hours. That is until he meets the townsfolk and seems to become the butt of some cosmic practical joke.
Soon, his money is stolen, a white-trash nymphet has fallen in love with him, her over excitable boyfriend wants to kill him and Darrell the mechanic keeps on raising the price on him. It seems that he is trapped in Superior, so he takes Jake up on his offer.
Grace, however, is too irresistible and Bobby cannot help but to fall for her. It turns out she and Jake have some very dark secrets which she wants to run away from. But she cannot leave until Jake is dead.
It is a set-up we have seen many times before in such films as "Red Rock West" and "Body Heat," but Stone does not add much else to the genre. His characters are more than willing to ham it up, but his direction is too heavy and too disturbing to ever let the story take off.
Sean Penn is perfectly cast as the cocky drifter whose luck gets worse and worse. Penn is the kind of actor that is likable enough to root for, but not so much that we mind watching him get beaten up again and again.
Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix are hilarious as the young white trash couple who will not leave Bobby alone. Their scenes, devoid of any unpleasant overtones, are the only genuinely funny moments in the film.
Jon Voight is unrecognizable as a blind Native American who sees more than others. And Billy Bob Thornton is so dirty and disgusting as the mechanic from Hell, you do not know if you should laugh at him or pity him.
They all take their stock characters and add a demented twist, much like Stone was hoping to do with the film noir genre. But with incest playing an all too visible part in the film along with the many other disturbing images Stone likes to intercut with his action, "U-Turn" is not that much fun. Stone even seemed forced to add a tweaky score and comic sound effects at points to remind us it is supposed to be funny.
Only at the very end does the film reach the darkly comic tone it was trying for. But after two hours of being bombarded by numerous images of rotted desert carcasses and disturbing sex, you just want it to end.
Had Stone softened his style a bit and allowed his actors to take over, the film would have been more of a success. But then again, Oliver Stone has never been accused of being subtle.
