U-Turn: Caring for the Special Needs Infant and Toddler

... if you're the Manson family that is. When I saw this flick in the theaters it reminded me of a cross between "Duel in the Sun", "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "Double Indemnity" if they were up all night doing crystal meth in the town of Superior, Arizona. Based on John Ridley's 1997 debut novel entitled "Stray Dogs" - the screenplay follows Bobby Cooper as he lies, cheats, swindles, cons and plays members of a small town in order to get out and pay off a debt to a Russian Las Vegas mob boss as he propels himself down a twisted spiral of deceit and murder. Only trouble is, the town is playing him right back. This western noir fare feels like Jim Thompson and Elmore Leonard ran into each other really hard and waxed creative with heatstroke and concussions. "U-Turn" the film is really a masterful work, but the screenplay is pretty bare bones and so strinkingly resembles the novel that the money is better put into Ridley's superbly written book. The high points of "U-Turn" are contained in it's amazing visuals and eccentric performances by actors Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Jennifer Lopez- and none of that is hinted on or felt in the screenplay. The film is great, the novel is particularly awesome, but the screenplay just feels excessive. The introduction by Oliver Stone is particularly insightful if you want an intelligent look at how a film evolves from script through production to finished product - but all that is is basically a travelogue of the film. John Ridley's foreword feels like he took the money and ran, even though he avoids throwing harsh words Stone's way for tweaking the ending and making Ridley postpone the release date of "Stray Dogs" to come after the film so the audience will be surprised at plot twists. If you're a die-hard "U-Turn" fan it's a must have ... but how many of those can there be out there?