One False Move

Another more recent -- well, recent according to the standards of this blog -- movie that I recorded when it aired on TCM because it sounded interesting was a film from 1991 called One False Move. I recently watched it, and I'm glad I recorded it.

The movie starts off in Los Angeles, where a young woman named Fantasia (Cynda Williams) stops by the house of one of her friends who is having a small get-together where there's dancing and one of the people has a camcorder. Fantasia says she left her purse in the car, and when she goes to get it, she's not the only one to come back. Two men are with her, and the men proceed to bind and gag all of the people in the house, looking for a bunch of cocaine as well as cash from a previous coke deal. Nobody will tell them where the stuff is, so the men murder the poor victims. In their search for the cocaine and cash, Fantasia finds one of the victims' young sons, which really unsettles her.

Unfortunately, the men didn't realize that the camcorder was still rolling, which gives the police a vital piece of evidence. They have a good idea that the men are Pluto (Michael Beach), who is known for being both extremely intelligent as well as rational and relatively emotionless; and Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), who is the opposite of Pluto in pretty much every way, and happens to be Fantasia's boyfriend. Audio analysis of the tape also suggests that Fantasia might have mentioned a place called "Star City", which the cops, McFeely and Cole, determine is one Star City, Arkansas.

They call up the police chief in Star City, Hurricane Dixon (Bill Paxton), who remembers Fantasia having arrested her on shoplifting charges several years earlier when she was in high school, which might explain why she left for the big city although she still has family in Star City. But they also realize Fantasia has a good motive in returning to a place like Star City, and that Ray and Pluto are probably going to show up there too. So McFeely and Cole make their way to Arkansas, where they find a police chief who seems to be a bit star-struck, if you will, by big city cops, but who also knows more than he's letting on about fighting crime.

But our criminals aren't going to get there quite yet. Instead, they've got that cocaine to dispose of, so they're driving halfway across the southern US to Houston since not many people would expect drugs from LA to make it to Houston courtesy two lone wolves. But from there they'll be on their way to Star City, especially since Fantasia took the money there for the three to make the split. Will the Los Angeles detectives be able to find the criminals? Will Hurricane remember Fantasia and still recognize her on sight? It's all building up to an exciting climax, albeit with some twists and turns.

I had never heard of One False Move before it showed up on TCM. That's probably because the original plan was to release the movie straight to video. But the producers put it in a couple of film festivals and got positive reviews, which prompted them to put it into theatrical release, even though the original release doesn't seem to have turned a profit. That's a bit of a surprise, since One False Move is a pretty darn good movie. The fact that it wasn't done at a major studio, however, mostly likely has something to do with the very limited box office. I can't imagine the movie getting wide distribution without a big studio behind it.

Frankly, it's a shame that One False Move isn't better known, since it has a good story and engaging performances. If you can find it, it's absolutely worth watching.