Fool for Love

Director: Robert Altman
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 1.5

It starts off badly: ten minutes of dusty roads and southwestern silence followed by Sam Shepard's character (Shepard also wrote the play) busting through a cardboard door to start haranguing his sister/lover (Kim Basinger), which he continues to do until the very end. The incessant bickering between the two is tiring and the 'secret' of their relationship is telegraphed ahead of time - then there are the issues with the movie's awkward score, bland dialogue and shifts in tone. This kind of picture (a filmed play) was not exactly Altman's forte, and the only piece of him that shows in this is the camera positioning and movement.