Attempting to take down a suspected drug kingpin, police detectives Jimmy Raynor (Jason Patric) and Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh) go undercover in the small Texas town of Katterly. Their infiltration into the drug world results in both of them coming under the influence of heroin and an assorted cornucopia of pills that threaten their very existence. It's a gritty film and one that highlights the sordid underworld of the drug trade that exists pretty much in plain sight if one goes looking for it. The story could have been made more menacing if it utilized Gregg Allman in a more treacherous light. He portrays saloon owner Will Gaines, who meticulously avoids any connection to the dealers and users who descend on his Driller's Club, and ultimately faces arrest due to planted evidence that Raynor and Cates resort to upon the orders of their Chief Nettle (Tony Frank). Quite frankly, Nettle came across even sleazier than Gaines to me because of his paranoid agenda. The entire case falls apart when Cates, on a courtroom stand to testify, decides it's not worth it to lie about their involvement in Gaines' arrest, this after their principal informant (Max Perlich) commits suicide, and Raynor falls victim to a gunshot wound in what I thought was a somewhat awkward scene that relies on the viewer's conjecture as to what really happened. And so it is with the final scene as well, in which Gaines leaves the court a free bird (with due recognition to Lynyrd Skynyrd),and receives a sentence in absentia from an unknown assailant, although one's hunch about who did it would be a fair guess.

The cable guide summary was misleading -- "Two undercover cops become lovers and addicted to dope and danger." Look out -- action movie ahead, right? Righteous cops seek out Gothic underworld figures. Motorcycle chases. Exploding heads. Vicious beatings. The shoot out in the automobile graveyard. The final vindication with the hero's arm in a sling. But no. It's a mature movie. Above all, the couple don't get hooked on danger. On the contrary, they're scared to death of it.

Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh are two narcs who must be part of the drug world they inhabit and yet retain their identities as cops. In a way they're marginal people, like shop foremen or upper-echelon clerks -- no longer just workers, yet not part of management either. Or like cultural anthropologists, for that matter, participant observers, of which I was one. Two of us were studying psychedelic drug use in New York way back when and were doing on-site observation at a party where everyone else was getting stoned. The dope turned my hosts paranoid and they accused us of being narcs. My partner and I agreed that I would partake of the illicit substance -- just a hit or two to reassure our subjects -- and my partner would not. It reflected really poor judgment on my part. (How long is the statue of limitations in effect, again?) But watching this movie, I could understand pretty much exactly where these two narcs were coming from. In their case, life and death were involved. If you don't participate, you don't do your job. If you do, you're breaking the law. If one side finds you out, you're spanked. If the other side finds you out, you're spanked.

What's important in a movie like this are the performances and they're quite good. Not just Patric and Leigh, but even the smaller parts. I was pleasantly surprised by the direction as well. Let me see. The producer is Richard Zanuck. The director is Lili Fini Zanuck. When you see a combination of names like those with statuses like those, you have to suspect nepotism. But, nepotism or no, the direction is unhurried, dark, humorless and very effective, the subdued equal of one of Sidney Lumet's stories of squealing cops in New York.

The photography is outstanding, its colors drawn from the cool end of the spectrum. The music is by Eric Clapton and he does a great riff on Texas Rock, though we still hear his vibrating chords through the cow flops.

It isn't a happy movie. But it's unusually well done.

I thought this movie was excellent. I loved Greg Allman in this. He really should make more movies. I remember the first time I saw him in the movie, walking into the bar, checking out people, clad in black with his long blonde hair, he was the bar owner type. He really did not have such a big part but I think he played a great Gains. My husband and I each have two different takes on the end of the movie. I say that when Jennifer Leigh is in court on the stand, when she looks at Gains, he takes his finger and runs it down his nose very slowly, while he is staring at her. The same thing that happened when the double barrel gun came through the window when she was laying on the couch. Now, I think that Leigh was the one in the back seat and blew Gains away. My husband says that police chief, or Sam Elliott killed him, I say it was Jennnifer Jason Leigh. Who was it? One of my all time favorite, one of many.