Receiving mixed reviews since it's release, U Turn (1997) is definitely a "love it or hate it" film. Negativity aside, director Oliver Stone did truly create something unique with the film. Genre-blending, U Turn is part thriller, part Film Noir, part Western but always filtered distinctively through Stone's signature style. The aesthetic look of the film is original as well. Stone used Kodak's 5239 color reversal stock, a film commonly used in surveillance cameras at the time, which has a tendency to exaggerate and intensify colors and give a grainy quality to the picture. This method was chosen as a means to deal with the overexposed, sun-drenched Arizona town in which they were filming. The A-List cast is amazing, all signing on for the opportunity to work with Stone... Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Daines, Powers Boothe, Jon Voight... but the real stunning show-stopper is Jennifer Lopez in an early Femme Fatale role.
Bobby (Sean Penn) is a petty gambler with a sizable debt to Russian gangsters. He's already lost two fingers for it. He is on his way to California with a backpack full of money, prepared to pay it off, when his car breaks down in the desert. He manages to drive it to the nearest town: Superior, Arizona... a dilapidated small desert community. There, Bobby is immediately at odds with the town's sole, crooked auto mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton)...
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| U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn |
Leaving his car to be fixed, Bobby wanders around the tiny town and meets Grace (Jennifer Lopez), a stunning beauty, who does not seem too put off by Bobby's advances...
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| U Turn. 1997: Jennifer Lopez |
After some flirtation, Grace invites him back to her house...
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| U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez |
Where Bobby's advances grow more daring...
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| U Turn. 1997: Jennifer Lopez |
Suddenly Grace's husband, Jake (Nick Nolte) bursts in and ruins Bobby's fun. Bobby flees back to town, but Jake stops him along the way. Seeing Booby as a scoundrel, he takes the opportunity to propose that he will pay Bobby to murder Grace for him, as he has grown tired of her cheating and games. Bobby refuses and heads back to town, where he fraternizes amongst the colorful characters there to varying degrees of hostility....
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| U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn |
Bobby loses his bag of money when the store he goes into gets robbed. He is now desperate. He needs cash to get his car out of the shop and pay his debt, or he will be killed by the gangsters...
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| U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez |
Now Bobby must seriously consider Jake's proposal to kill Grace as a means to get the much-needed cash...
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| U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez |
With complications around each turn, however, Bobby's troubles are just beginning...
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| Jennifer Lopez |
