Plot: What’s it about?
A little violence goes a long way. A LOT of violence is truly romantic. This is a lesson learned from “True Romance”. “Love and a 45” takes this idea and runs with it.
“Bonnie and Clyde” introduced the concept…”True Romance” made it fun. “Love and a 45” mostly successfully succeeds at using this formula.
Gil Bellows plays your basic friendly neighborhood convenience store criminal. He seems to pick out mostly local stores…always with an unloaded gun. He never fails to be polite and even give a lesson to the store employees in the merits of the criminal way of life. And of course he always sticks by his standard of tipping the employee 10% of his take.
So his is a happy criminal with modest ambitions and no one ever gets hurt. He also is happily living with Renne Zelwegger.
But drama must always have character flaws and it seems Gil is a gambler too and not a very lucky one. With only one day to get $2,000 he sets out on a basic robbery proposed by a particularly edgy friend of his.
Hs friends seem to like his guns season with bullets and to let them fly when things don’t go quite his way. So this robbery ends up quite bloody after he kills his girlfriend who happens to be behind the counter. To bad she is the daughter of a particularly important citizen…the sheriff.
Gil and Renne go on the run…and people start to die…Nothing personal…things just get out of hand…and these two are so, so in love.
It really is quite a touching story.
Love conquers all, but sometimes love is really bloody.
I do worry about the message of the film, but must admit I enjoyed its form. Cleverly scripted and wonderfully acted.
Video: How does it look?
Crisp and clean…all the reds are really, really read.
Audio: How does it sound?
Those gunshots are really loud and you can almost here the blood splatter on the walls in surround sound.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This features much more than blood and love. It is well enhanced with directors commentary…a few deleted scenes and nice extras like a music video before and after storyboard comparisons for two key scenes.
