Waking Up in Reno (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser
Directed by Jordan Brady
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson, Penelope Cruz

Features:

• Running audio commentary with director Brady and screenwriters Briscoe and Fauser
  
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Brady, Briscoe, and Fauser
  
• Making of Waking Up in Reno
  

Released by: Miramax
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes
My Advice: Rent it

Four life-long friends, Lonnie Earl and Darlene Dodd (Thornton and Richardson, respectively) and Roy and Candy Kirkendall (Swayze and Theron, respectively) have decided to travel from their home in Arkansas to Reno, Nevada to see a huge monster truck rally and put in a little gambling. Well, it turns out that the Dodds' relationship is a little shaky at the moment and their sex life is not what it used to be. The problem there is that Lonnie Earl is a walking libido with a bad car salesman's haircut. The Kirkendalls' relationship is doing just fine. In fact, their sex life is great because they are desperately trying to get pregnant. Well, it turns out that Candy and Lonnie Earl have had an affair. Well, when Candy finally turns up pregnant while out in Reno, all hell breaks loose.

The script could not be any more predictable, but the cast create such lovable and interesting characters that it really doesn't matter. This is truly an ensemble piece, and they each work wonderfully together, with no upstaging between actors going on. Like I said, if the movie has a weakness, it's that you can see the "surprise" coming from the first five minutes of the movie. In fact, now that I think about it, this might actually be one of the things that makes the movie work. Stay with me a moment, but I think that had it really been a real "surprise", it might have weakened the film more. In fact, most of the point of the movie was that we could see it coming but none of the characters could. So what could be predictability to one man is another's "dramatic irony".

Anyway, if there is an actor who really stands out in this ensemble, it would be Richardson. The reason why I point her out as "outstanding" is that she blends in so well with the other actors who were a quite a bit closer in their real life to the characters they were portraying. Coming in a close second is Patrick Swayze (and this is a phrase that I never thought I'd see myself write). He creates such a wonderfully sensitive character in this movie and plays it very truthfully.

I was hoping that the Making Of featurette would provide some insight into why this group of actors wanted to make this kind of movie at this point in their careers. I mean, the obvious answer is that they all wanted to work together and they thought the characters would be a lot of fun. Mostly I was interested to see where the hell the idea to cast the London-born Richardson came in, but I'm left wondering. Other than that, this featurette offers no real insight to the movie.

On most DVDs, you watch the deleted scenes (if they are offered up) and say something like, "Well, thank God they cut that crap out of the movie." In this case, however, most of the deleted scenes leave you wishing that they had left them in the final cut. They offer much more in the way of a connection to these amazing characters than were available in the film. In fact, the final deleted scene offers Richardson's character a much stronger ending to the movie and has her tie up a lot of loose ends. It's a real shame that they had to cut these out. The commentary track for these deleted scenes really offers no insight into why they cut them. In fact, the three of these guys seem to share quite a few inside jokes during their commentary. The commentary track for the feature film is a little better in that at least they put forth some interesting information about the writing and making of the movie, but again, with the three of them on the track, they step on each other quite a bit and make it hard to glean anything.

So, this movie should be seen at least once. It's really that good. There will even be some people (like me) who will want to add it to their collection, but most everyone else will simply want to rent it.