This is a little-remembered film from the 90's starring the types of characters from Drugstore Cowboy, Natural Born Killers, and True Romance, except for one has Tourette's syndrome. Their interest in each other gets them caught up in chaotic scenarios and ultimately puts their relationship in peril, even if one of them has a lot of crazy life stories to tell to future children or something.
The characters were sort of bland, Gen-Xer, 90's models of 20-somethings who had niche interests in petty theft and living life outside of the local rules. Robin Tunney gives a good performance as the Tourette's girl (name forgotten),but Henry Thomas' character, her significant other, was dull and not bright at all
a real pain to watch. The worst part about the film was the missing logic during most of the characters' encounters with people along their journey to Canada. So many awkward experiences could have been avoided if the guy just explained her mental condition in a calm manner to others.
Overall, it's a memorable film, to me, but it gets lost in the shuffle between the aforementioned movies and films like Girl, Interrupted which explore more mentally-challenged characters on a deeper, more logical level. It feels more middle-of-the-road, which is why I give it a 5 star rating. A better ending would have boosted that rating up a notch, as well.
Niagara, Niagara
1997
Action / Drama / Romance
Niagara, Niagara
1997
Action / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
"Niagra, Niagra" begins quietly in a drugstore in Poughkeepsie, where Marcie, the film's disarming heroine, likes to shoplift. She literally crashes into Seth, a quiet outsider, also on a shoplifting spree. Marcie invites Seth to accompany her to Canada to find a black hairstyling head. They set off in Seth's beat-up station wagon, destined for a toy store in Toronto. While on the road, Marcie confides to Seth that she has Tourette's syndrome, necessitating a series of detours to liquor stories and pharmacies along the roads of upstate New York.
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Another middle-of-the-road love movie, despite the mental disorder
oddball couple road trip
Seth (Henry Thomas) is an awkward loner taking care of his abusive father in upstate New York. He meets Marcy (Robin Tunney) in a hardware store. She's a shoplifter, from a rich trash transport family and suffers from Tourette syndrome. There is no black Barbie styling head and they decide to go to Toronto to get one. She has trouble getting medication. She self-medicates with alcohol and sex. They rob pharmacist Claude (Stephen Lang) and Seth gets shot. They crash the car and Walter (Michael Parks) tows them back to his place.
Henry Thomas and Robin Tunney make for an appealing oddball couple. I'm not sure if Robin is overplaying Tourettes. Some of what she does is more than simply losing control. Although I guess she could be fixated on something and then act on it. This is a road trip movie. I would like more intensity in some of the scenes. There are lots of opportunity but the movie falls a little short.
How to make a movie on the cheap
Hire a couple of competent B-listers like Tunney and Thomas, make them quirky so they'll be interesting - like give them Tourette's and ticks or whatever - then send them on a road trip so there's changing scenery, something which is always kinda-sorta interesting on the cheap, and have them encounter more quirky people and viola! Oh, yeah, guns are good and car crashes and stuff. Such is the formula behind "Niagra Niagra"; a shallow, unoriginal low budget product with little to offer save a whole lot of quirkiness. Another indie destined to die a slow death in that vast sea of flotsam called broadcast. (C)