Story of a reporter (Woody Harrelson) who is released from jail after two years for a crime he didn't commit, and returns reluctantly(?) to the woman (Gina Gershon) who loves him in the small Florida town of Palmetto. Unemployed and down on his luck, he is sitting in a bar where he meets a rich attractive woman (Elizabeth Shue) who has a proposition for him. She want's him to help her with the fake kidnapping of the woman's stepdaughter so that both her and the stepdaughter would have the money the want.
Sometimes style wins over substance and sometimes a film fails at both which is what happens here. Far to many little quirks are included here in an attempt to make the film stylish, most of them don't work and some of them actually become laughable.
There is a lot to admire in the noir tradition but it has to be done right, but here it just misses time and time again. The double-crosses are obvious, the irony is overdone and style is over the top. On top of that the characters behavior often makes no sense whatsoever and Harrelson's performance suffers here for already having played far to many 'dumb chumps' in his career.
Sometimes style wins over substance and sometimes a film fails at both which is what happens here. Far to many little quirks are included here in an attempt to make the film stylish, most of them don't work and some of them actually become laughable.
There is a lot to admire in the noir tradition but it has to be done right, but here it just misses time and time again. The double-crosses are obvious, the irony is overdone and style is over the top. On top of that the characters behavior often makes no sense whatsoever and Harrelson's performance suffers here for already having played far to many 'dumb chumps' in his career.