Review of Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by Jer M — 11 Feb 2008

Most of ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES is offbeat fun in the best way. It feels like a quirky Coen Bros. musical, which makes sense because they produced it and John Turturro directed it. The musical numbers are hilarious and inventive and most of the time you never see them coming. The actors give it their all, especially Christopher Walken who is at his insane best. (His singing of Tom Jones' "Delilah" is a highlight. It's on YouTube. Check it out.) The pacing is suitably frenetic and crazy and nothing is taken seriously at all.

HOWEVER...

Notice how I began this review by saying that "MOST" of this movie was this way. The movie nearly falls apart completely within the final ten minutes with one of the oddest, most out-of-place endings I've seen in a while. The tone switches from fancifully surreal and upbeat to unbearably grim and tragic. Now, I like a good tragic ending as much as the next guy and I don't demand that events in movies have to end happily, but the way Turturro wraps everything up here just doesn't work. It's unneeded and prevents a really good movie from being great.

HOWEVER...

Don't let the unnecessarily and overly tragic ending dissuade you from seeing this because the good stuff FAR outweighs the bad. It's being fucked in the ass by its distributor so it's going to be really hard to find. However, if you can find it, check it out in the name of bizarre entertainment.