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Since the attraction is mutual and they have so much in common, Clarence and Alabama figure that it'd be cool to become man and wife. The mere fact that Alabama is a novice hooker, hired by his boss as a birthday treat, is of no consequence. More pressing is the little matter of Alabama's pimp, dangerous Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman), and his reluctance to let Alabama go free. Spurred by his imaginary mentor, the ghost of Elvis (Val Kilmer), Clarence takes a trip over to Drexl's dingy place. Unbelievably naive and innocent, Clarence is playing with fire when he confronts Drexl, on his own turf. No wonder the encounter degenerates into a mess of violence.
Fortunately Clarence manages to emerge relatively unscathed, leaving behind him a couple of fresh corpses and carrying the added bonus of a suitcase of Alabama's things. However, the case contains nothing that prosaic, instead it's stuffed full of uncut cocaine. Confronted with this level of temptation and worry, all the Worley's can do is head out of town fast. A quick visit to Clarence's dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper) confirms that the cops aren't onto them, thus LA is their next stop. Clarence has an old friend out there, miserable actor Dick Ritchie (Michael Rapaport), and it's the best place to offload a bag full of stolen coke. It's a shame that the owners want it back.
Drawn from the trash-art filled mind of Tarantino, True Romance carries the usual hallmarks of extreme, dizzying violence and spiky, referential dialogue. Clarence is a true comic-book geek who just happens to get lucky with a call-girl who has a heart of gold (isn't that always the way). The action, from the instant of their meeting, is super-charged and frenetic, a blur of bullets and edgy meetings. Scott is accomplished at this aspect of directing, as can be seen in the excellent roller-coaster sequence (very Top Gun). The rapid editing and swaying camera angles give the gyrating ride a lot of impact. The rest of the film doesn't function at quite this level, though it's not much more relaxed either (so there's a lot to keep the avid action fan satisfied).
True Romance rolls out a number of big names in small roles, providing a strange sense of familiarity. Actors like Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken have appeared in very similar roles before, which removes the need for character development in this instance. Clarence and Alabama have slightly more depth to their personalities, but not much (since background and motivation don't feature highly in this movie). If the statements of never-ending love seem rushed that's because everything in True Romance is moving at speed. The key is to accept events without question - it's that sort of film.
Where True Romance both succeeds and fails is in the script. The lines are vibrant and unusual, but at the expense of becoming relentlessly quirky. Without any of the characters providing a connection to normality (the closest is a stoned Brad Pitt), the overwhelming cleverness is just too much to bear. Every scene is constructed to illustrate Tarantino's virtuosity, which makes True Romance feel more like a endless line of show-pieces rather than a smoothly flowing, continuous narrative. Watching True Romance with the brain in neutral provides a great deal of visceral pleasure, even if the original ending has been softened by Scott, but don't expect anything else.
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