Cold Feet Movie Review

Someone must have had cold feet about making Cold Feet because Thomas McGuane's screenplay sat on the shelf for nearly 13 years. This starring vehicle for Oscar-nominee Sally Kirkland is supposed to be a comedy. The press kit even let reviewers know what the funny parts are and why; if you don't laugh, well, heck, maybe you just don't have a sense of humor. The film is 94 minutes long and Kirkland has a different costume change for every scene. She dives into the part with such enthusiasm that it almost doesn't matter that her role makes no sense at all. Her co-stars Keith Carradine and Tom Waits are supposed to be endearing in a peculiar sort of way. Carradine's irresponsible cowboy ditches fiancee Kirkland with Waits, a psychotic killer who's even played as a folk hero. (Waits shoots a doctor in cold blood and then overacts for the rest of the movie while Kirkland nibbles on Cheez Whiz and crackers.) Small details are ignored: if you cut a horse open to stuff him with emeralds, you always have to sew him back up again if you want him to live, except in this movie. Also, even though Waits slices Carradine's ear and Carradine did, after all, watch him shoot that doctor, Carradine still lets his much-loved nine-year-old daughter play with Waits without supervision. I thought that was really strange. I only laughed at one thing: a movie marquee features Chicks with Zip Guns as the main attraction and Rancho Deluxe as the second feature. It's an in-joke but at least I got this one. Thomas McGuane wrote Rancho Deluxe back in 1975 and its star Jeff Bridges has an unbilled bit in Cold Feet as a bartender. Another in-joke is the presence of Kirkland's real-life old flame Rip Torn as an all-purpose sheriff and minister at her onscreen wedding. If you agree with McGuane that Montana in and of itself is hilarious, then Cold Feet just may be your movie.

1989 (R) 94m/C Keith Carradine, Tom Waits, Sally Kirkland, Rip Torn, Kathleen York, Bill Pullman, Vincent Schiavelli, Jeff Bridges; D: Robert Dornhelm; W: Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison; C: Bryan Duggan; M: Tom Bahler. VHS, LV