The Inferno

Issue date: 6/4/02 Section: Frontline

Val Kilmer chums it up with his fellow addicts in, "The Salton Sea."

Director D.J. Caruso, whose resume thus far has included such small-screen shows as "Dark Angel" and "Smallville," and work in such movies as "Point Of No Return" and "Nick of Time," has helped create a strong character and an inventive story line in "The Salton Sea."

For this film, he casts Val Kilmer as a "tweaker," or a speed freak, who often binges with his punk-rock compadres for fun. Admittedly, Kilmer is a little hard to believe as someone who would lounge around in bondage pants and studded collars doing drugs with people in their 20s. He looks a bit more like he'd be a parent, or even just a dealer. However, somehow he fits in and after a brief bit of confusion, the audience is led to understand why this is so.

Kilmer's character, Danny, is not who he says he is. His real name is Tom Van Allen, soon revealed as a trumpet player whose wife was murdered so many years earlier. Working with the police to catch a noseless drug dealer, played by Vincent Donofrio, he assumes the name Danny Parker.

In the process of his undercover operations, his intention is to find out who killed his wife. However, as these stories go, he learns some "street smarts" along the way and also becomes a junkie himself. Still, Danny's life as a junkie is never played up much in the movie. He's not running to get help or anything. This is something that never matters much in the movie, and viewers' attention is drawn away from the drug use as the film moves on.

Despite some of the lost pieces of that plot, "The Salton Sea" actually hands over a polished Tarantino-esque story. There's a very sophisticated style to the film, with camera shots — the slow-motion pan around mannequinlike actors and buzzing shots of car lights on interstates — made popular in such films as "Buffalo 66," "Fight Club" and various music videos.

But it's mostly through voiceovers and dialogue this movie becomes the original story it is. Through these we get to know Danny's character and care about him. In spite of the fact he is a narc, he makes real friends — a subplot arises in which he tries to help a neighbor out of a domestic abuse situation. And the closer he gets to apprehending his wife's killer, the more pulsating the story becomes, until we do believe in Kilmer's character.

Kilmer's performance is strong and he pulls it off. He is not alone, either. The supporting cast helps carry the weight and the strength of this film as well. Although some of the flashbacks of Tom with his wife and the scenes between Danny's neighbor and him come off as a little too sugar-coated and end up seeming slightly cheesy, most of the interactions in the movie are humorous or intense. Movie-goers who like their action and their drama rolled into a clean original package are sure to find this film satisfying.

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