The Salton Sea Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)May 15th, 2002
THE SALTON SEA
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When Danny Parker's (Val Kilmer) wife is murdered, he loses his identity. Hanging with a bunch of LA tweakers (methamphetamine addicts), Danny snitches on the side to cops Morgan (Doug Hutchison, "The Green Mile") and Garcetti (Anthony LaPaglia, "Lantana"). Unbeknownst to the cops, though, he hopes to make one big score bankrolled by Bubba (B.D. Wong, "The Freshman"). With only his buddy and fellow tweaker Jimmy the Finn (Peter Sarsgaard, "Boys Don't Cry"), Danny tries to play the game with the notorious and volatile Pooh-Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio, "Happy Accidents") in "The Salton Sea."
Val Kilmer blows his horn against a wall of flames while his narration offers up two possible identities - the happily married man he once was and Danny Parker, the tweaker trying to expose his wife's killers. This "Memento"-like storyline doubles back near its end to make us reevaluate what's come before. Feature debuter D.J. Caruso directs a crack ensemble cast, bringing screenwriter Tony Gayton's ("Murder by Numbers") narcotics noir to life.
Days and nights for Danny are indistinguishable, running into one another as the highs spent with Finn, Kujo (Adam Goldberg, "A Beautiful Mind") and assorted hangers on gradually peter out. When Danny's out and about, he's either informing or vaguely rescuing his battered neighbor Colette (Deborah Kara Unger, "The Hurricane"). He crosses a line when he meets Pooh Bear, leader of a dangerous posse of desert meth cookers who has snorted so much of his own product, his nose had to be removed.
Gayton's script subtly readjusts character perceptions as Danny fills in the gaps with increasingly clearer flashbacks of his wife's murder. While the story unfolds languidly, interest never wanes because of the humorous punctuation delivered throughout. Zoning with the tweakers? Time for Kujo's recitation of his 'big heist,' where he and his cronies steal Bob Hope's stool sample to sell on eBay. Danny's big score-making talk getting dull? Bring on Pooh-Bear and his psycho pigeon reenactment of the JFK assassination. When the humor fades, the story twists take up the slack, but "The Salton Sea" eventually does begin to seem like it's unreeling in fits
and starts.
The cast is to be commended. Val Kilmer grounds the film with his weary speeder. He's a believable rarity as an addict who appears to maintain control. D'Onofrio lets fly with his air-sucking sociopath, all boyish overbite one second, sadistic drug lord the next. (He does remove the nasal prosthesis once, showing his profile with a background computer monitor conveniently acting as a practical blue screen.) Sarsgaard's Finn glows from within. When the naive, excessively loyal Jimmy asks Danny who JFK was, he breaks your heart by thanking Danny for not laughing at him. While these three are the standouts, everyone from Goldberg to Kara Unger to Luis Guzman, Danny Trejo, Glenn Plummer and B.D. Wong contributes to the film's jazzy, off-kilter hooks.
Cinematography by Amir Mokri ("The Joy Luck Club") is stunning, playing up the brightness of the desert against the darkness of the tweakers' world. At one point, the stucco walls of Danny's shabby apartment shimmer like water's surface. Music is well integrated into the wildly diverse goings on, never more so that when the 'doo-doo-doo' chorus of "Walk on the Wild Side" plays to Kujo's stool sample fantasy.
The Salton Sea is a strange byproduct of nature outside of L.A., making it an apt title for this off-beat study of L.A's fringe dwellers.
B
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