The Salton Sea

Released 2002
Stars Val Kilmer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzman, Doug Hutchison, Anthony LaPaglia, Peter Sarsgaard, Deborah Kara Unger
Directed by D.J. Caruso

The movie opens with a fascinating account of the history of speed (meth) since World War II, then takes us into the world of Danny Parker (Val Kilmer), who resides in the "land of the perpetual night party". At first, Danny appears to be just another user. He and his buddies, Jimmy (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kujo (Adam Goldberg) seem to have nothing better to do than hang out, absorb the punk/goth scene, and do drugs. But there's more to Danny than meets the eye - much more. In the first place, his real name is Tom Van Allen, or at least that used to be his real name. He is haunted by memories of a beautiful wife, who may or may not be real. And Danny is a police informant for a pair of crooked cops - Morgan (Doug Hutchison) and Garcetti (Anthony LaPaglia). He's also trying to make one last big score from a dealer named Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio), so he can vanish into obscurity. Or is he? The pieces don't all quite fit, and director Caruso is keeping the last one tantalizingly out of reach until he's ready to finish the puzzle.

Summary by James Berardinelli

"The Salton Sea" is reminiscent of Memento in tone and the way their main characters wax wearily and poetically about life, but this movie has a lot of dark humor as well. I loved the opening history on methamphetamine and the planned heist of Bob Hope's stool sample. It also has some interesting twists, but it's more notable for the absence of some of the typical twists in this genre. For example, I was quite surprised there was no love story between Danny (Val Kilmer) and his neighbor (Deborah Kara Unger), and that was refreshing. One of my favorite parts was the friendship between Danny and Jimmy (Peter Sarsgaard), which was unusual in its sincerity. There's a wonderful scene in the car on the way home from Pooh Bear's when Jimmy asked Danny what "JFK" stood for. After Danny answers his moronic questions, Jimmy looks at him with such a pure look that it's disarming, and he thanks him for not laughing. It's a sweet moment, and there are a few more later. It's unusual to have such moments between friends in this cynical genre of film noir. One of the movie's strengths is it's not a slave to the noir formulas, but there was one obligatory plot point I could have done without. That was the dead wife which propelled Tom (Val Kilmer) into his downward spiral of drugs. There is a pleasant surprise regarding this, but I'm tired of that one and would have preferred a different setup. Anyway, another of the movie's strengths is the Pooh Bear character (Vincent D'Onofrio), who's a hoot. Anyone who re-enacts the JFK assassination with pigeons and a remote-controlled toy car is a character you want to spend time with. It's a small part, but D'Onofrio creates a wheezingly memorable character. 

SPOILER ALERT: On the downside, the ending felt tacked-on. I have a feeling there were some nervous suits that required a happy ending, but it wasn't logical. I'm pretty sure the FBI wouldn't have just forgotten about Tom after their $250,000 went up in smoke and after finding the pile of bodies at the ranch. Still, this is a highly stylistic movie that I definitely recommend. --Bill Alward, September 21, 2002