Holed up in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert, two former lovers unpack the deep secrets and dark desires of their tangled relationship, passionately tearing each other apart. Beaten down by ill-fated love and a ruthless struggle for identity, can they ultimately live with, or without, each other? Led by director Daniel Aukin (Back Back Back at MTC; 4,000 Miles), Tony Award winner Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur at MTC, Born Yesterday)and Sam Rockwell (A Behanding in Spokane, The Way Way Back) bring an explosive intensity to Sam Shepard's (Buried Child, True West) landmark myth of the new Wild West.
Rockwell, the reliable movie actor celebrated as much for his supporting roles as his leading ones, is part action, part talk -- and far more skilled with a lasso than we'd have any right to expect...Rockwell comes on as a wiseacre at first, something like Brad Pitt in 'Thelma & Louise,' trying to assure Arianda's May he just wants her to be happy. He gets cockier as he goes, and it's a very nifty, physical performance...Arianda, the Tony winner of 'Venus in Fur,' is hot-tempered and emotional, yet her performance all fits well within the bounds of Shepard's economical prose. The idea is to portray her -- purposefully -- as the stock, blousy working-class woman who's been in abusive relationship and has finally decided she can't take it anymore...'Fool for Love' is classic Shepard: Family dysfunction, a Western setting and some dark and twisted stuff leading up to a big reveal (or two). It's all handled with an enormous amount of skill and affection -- the 75 minutes fly by, and we feel as if we know these folks intimately.
...while there's no denying their combustible chemistry, I couldn't get past the impression that only Rockwell seems a natural inhabitant of Shepard country...The actor's loose physicality, his slyly ingratiating quality, his off-kilter swagger and insouciant humor all add flavor to a guy who has proved a fatal attraction for May since high school. He knows she's bad for him and vice versa, but he can't keep away...As May...[Arianda] works her blonde mane and long legs to bewitching effect, proving no less physical a performer than Rockwell. But the volatile characterization seems more studied than lived-in. May clings like a vine to Eddie one minute and then breaks their passionate kiss with a knee to the groin the next, but the desperation behind her push-pull instability in this production is unpersuasive.
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