Romeo Is Bleeding

This disjointed neo-noir thriller admittedly boasts some great performances (most notably from Gary Oldman in the role of a corrupt NYPD homicide detective), stunning cinematography and a seething score by Mark Isham. If only the plot were half as great!

That said, all the ingredients are there but somehow they just don’t make for a particularly tasty concoction. This 1993 thriller starts where the story ends – that is to say with former homicide detective Jack Grimaldi (G. Oldman) now working as a bartender in the middle of the desert (presumably Arizona or New Mexico) under the name Jim Daugherty. Looking at a photo album – in particular photos of his wife Natalie (Annabella Sciorra) - in a melancholy way his thoughts are narrated before we find out via flashback how Jack Grimaldi came to be Jim Daugherty…
Outwardly, NYPD homicide detective Jack Grimaldi seems to enjoy a lifestyle that would suggest his earnings are way above the usual rate for folks employed in that line of work and yep, his earnings are way above the average going rate… thanks to Jack being one corrupt bastard who is hoarding obscene amounts of cash bribes in exchange for favours to equally ruthless Mafia boss Don Falcone (Roy Scheider). Furthermore, and despite having a devoted and attractive wife, Jack also has a bit of a roving eye, not to mention a very young mistress called Sheri (Juliette Lewis in her usual offbeat mode) – a cocktail waitress with a penchant for dancing for Jack while dressed in kinky outfits.

Now Don Falcone has a new task in store for Jack and its Falcone’s henchman Sal (Michael Wincott) who tries to persuade Jack to accept it. The latest assignment seems simple enough – namely to reveal the location of mobster Nick Gazarra who’s now protected by the feds as a potential state witness and Falcone can’t risk Gazarra talking. Sure enough Gazarra (and some unlucky feds) are bumped off by psychotic and ruthless hit-woman Mona Demarkow (Lena Olin) and it’s from that point onward that things start to go seriously pear-shaped for Jack: fearing that Mona will also testify against him and possibly take over the turf, Jack is now tasked by Falcone to kill Mona. Thanks to his dick firmly lodged in his brain Jack is soon up to his old tricks again and allows her to seduce him in the safehouse he escorted her to – too bad some of his colleagues come bursting in just before you can say ‘coitus interruptus’. When Falcone learns of Jack’s ineptitude and his unwillingness to finish the job (Jack feels sexually attracted to Mona) he threatens to hurt his wife and Sheri before he orders his men to amputate one of Jack’s toes. Panic-stricken Jack sees to it that his wife Natalie leaves the city and hands her the payoff money, next he puts Sheri on a train to ensure she’s out of danger.

Unfortunately Mona is way too clever for Jack and always ahead of the game… her latest plan is to pay Jack for a fake death certificate but the minute she has it she tries to strangle Jack with a wire before he shoots her in the arm, culminating in an impossibly over-the-top car chase during which Mona repeatedly attempts to throttle Jack with her thighs (imagine the rehearsals for that scene!). Now things really do get from bad to worse for our corrupt detective, namely when he learns that the dame he shoots dead a short time later is not Mona but Sheri… we won’t give away how this mix-up occurred and we certainly won’t give away the climax except everyone gets what they deserve. Well, sort of.
This could have been great but thanks to the film’s by and large slow pace and unbalanced editing we’re never quite drawn into the action nor do we really care about any of the characters – in fact, Lena Olin’s ‘Mona Demarkov’ is so implausibly over the top with her constant and demented laughter her character runs into the danger of becoming a joke.

Suffice to say ROMEO IS BLEEDING (the title was taken from a Tom Waits song) was a mega box office flop and it’s easy to see why but the restored Blu-ray version will no doubt delight Gary Oldman fans and collectors of the film-noir genre.
Special Features include Interview with director Peter Medak, audio commentary, original theatrical trailer, isolated score and illustrated booklet (first pressing only).