Fool for Love (1985)

May is waiting for her boyfriend in a run-down American motel, when an old flame turns up and threatens to undermine her efforts and drag her back into the life that she was running away from. The situation soon turns complicated.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Sam Shepard (play), Sam Shepard (screenplay)

Stars:

Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Sam Shepard	...	Eddie
Kim Basinger	...	May
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Old Man
Randy Quaid	...	Martin
Martha Crawford	...	May's Mother
Louise Egolf	...	Eddie's Mother
Sura Cox	...	Teenage May
Jonathan Skinner	...	Teenage Eddie
April Russell	...	Young May
Deborah McNaughton	...	The Countess
Lon Hill	...	Mr. Valdes

Storyline

May is waiting for her boyfriend in a run-down American motel, when an old flame turns up and threatens to undermine her efforts and drag her back into the life that she was running away from. The situation soon turns complicated.

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Plot Keywords:

based on play | motel | double life | porch swing | woman in slip | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 1986 (France)

Also Known As:

Extraña pasión

Filming Locations:

El Dorado, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$55,637, 8 December 1985, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$836,156

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cannon Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Old Man character, played by Harry Dean Stanton in this film, has no personal name, and functions as a one-man Greek Chorus.

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Quotes

May: Do you want me to finish the story, Eddie?

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Connections

Featured in Altman (2014)

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Soundtracks

Honky Tonk Heroes
Written by Billy Joe Shaver
Performed by Waylon Jennings
Courtesy of RCA Records

User Reviews

Sam Shepard writes, scripts, and stars in this film. It's a dud.

Fool for Love (1985) was directed by Robert Altman. It's based on a Sam Shepard play. Sam Shepard did the screenplay. Sam Shepard also stars as Eddie, a rodeo rider who drives up to an end-of-nowhere motel, and starts causing trouble within the first 60 seconds.

I'm amazed that this movie is so bad. Shepard is a good actor, and so are the other leads: Kim Basinger as May, and Harry Dean Stanton as "Old Man." Randy Quaid has the unenviable supporting role as a "normal" guy who arrives at the motel to take May out on a date, and ends up enmeshed in the bizarre triangle.

It's hard to believe that a brilliant director, working with such skilled actors, could end up with a movie this bad. Nothing works, except that Eddie is a menacing presence throughout. It's obvious from the first minutes of the movie that bad things are going to happen, and they do throughout the film.

It's also obvious that Altman needed to open up the play so that he could turn it into a movie, and he did. He didn't do it all that well, but he did it.

It's clear that people didn't like the film. At the time I'm writing this review, the IMDb rating is a horrific 5.9. (I actually helped improve the rating when I gave the film a 6. That must be a first.)

The movie will work well enough on DVD, which is how I saw it. It would probably work better on the large screen, because you'd get even more of a sense of the total isolation of the motel location. However, my advice is to pick another movie. Fool for Love just isn't worth the time spent watching it.