In the early 90s, Hollywood was focused on cult films about lawless folks on the run.
Remember Thelma and Louise? The 1991 classic about two women on the lam caught the imagination of viewers. We will always remember Gina Davis and Susan Sarandon on their cross-country escape. Then in 1994, Quentin Tarantino did Pulp Fiction. What a masterpiece! That same year, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis wowed viewers with Natural Born Killers.
Amid the spate of films about felonious types in souped up cars one step ahead of the cops, a little known gem got lost: Love and a .45. It has recently replayed on the film channels, and if you loved some of the movies mentioned above, you'll be glued to this one!
Check out the picture. That's a very young Renee Zellweger sitting atop the getaway car. Next to her is Gil Bellows, when he was all of 26 years of age. They're a dashing couple. They are down and out, of course, like all the characters of those early 90s felons-on-the-run movies. They are illiterate and downtrodden. They have lived a life of petty crime.
But there is something vaguely sympathetic about them. They get into trouble more out of stupidity than larceny. Trouble? You have no idea!
Never the spoiler, I can only hint at the plot: Our heroes, or perhaps anti-heroes, are living on the fringes, deeply in debt, and deeply in love. They need cash! They owe the mob and they have no way of paying back the gangsters.
So a heist is in order. Problem is, it is a heist gone bad. Mayhem ensues. The couple must hit the road and run for their lives! They are chased by a bunch of evil cops, very bad gangsters, and a hodgepodge of offbeat characters. Everyone is after the couple, either for money or for revenge.
This movie is downright fun! You will be rooting for the couple to make it. The characters are charming, likable, and real.
Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.
We saw this film when it was first released around last December. I agree with you completely about the title, but the more I thought about it afterward, the more significant it became. The film tries to be 2 stories: the war and de-coding, and Turing's "imitation of life" as a gay man. I found it disjointed or unbalanced in parts because of this. But therein lies the real tragedy, as Turing committed suicide because of it (public knowledge, not giving anything away). So it was both victory and defeat. Maybe that would have been a better title. I enjoyed the film.
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