Name: Retro Film Review: Feeling Minnesota (1996)
Item: Feeling Minnesota
Rating: 30
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Quentin Tarantino is arguably the most influential of all 1990s film makers. But his influence wasn't always benign. Many film makers tried to emulate his success, often lacking Tarantino's talent and, as a result, producing movies that gave such a bad name to the phrase "Tarantinoesque". One of such examples is Feeling Minnesota, 1996 black comedy written and directed by Steven Baigelman.

The plot begins when stripper Freddie (played by Cameron Diaz) gets confronted by goons working for Red (played by Delroy Lindo), local crime boss. In order to punish her for the theft of 10,000 US$, Red forces her to marry his accountant Sam (played by Vincent d'Onofrio). Freddie is, naturally, not very happy with this union and during the wedding she immediately cheats her new husband with Jjaks (played by Keanu Reeves), his ex-convict brother. Two lovers decide to run away, but not before Jjaks steals some money from Sam. Soon after that Jjaks and Freddie would have to deal not only with Sam and Red, but also with Ben (played by Dan Aykroyd), corrupt police detective.

Feeling Minnesota was supposed to be black comedy. Unfortunately, Baigelman had sense of humour in short supply. Because of that, dark, depressive Minnesota locations and brutal violence soon begin to take heavy toll on film's atmosphere. The script tries to go for unexpected, but after a sudden plot twist in the middle Feeling Minnesota settles in the familiar territory of Hollywood cliches. Characters which are supposed to be "quirky" are actually quite dislikeable and Cameron Diaz needed all her charms to engage the audience. She somewhat succeeded in doing so, which is something that can't be said for her partner Keanu Reeves. The best acting job was done by Vincent d'Onofrio, but his talent, just like the talents of many other great performers, seems wasted in this uninspired imitation of True Romance.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 24th 2003)