Love Lies Bleeding (2008)
Directed by Keith Samples
Written by Brian Strasmann
Starring Brian Geraghty, Christian Slater, Jenna Dewan, Tara Summers, Jacob Vargas
Release Date January 15th, 2008
Published February 10th, 2008
From the director of Single White Female 2 and the writer of 2, yes 2 Walking Tall sequels starring Kevin Sorbo, comes the gritty indie flick Love Lies Bleeding. Greatly removed from the Elton John classic or the Michael Winterbottom fave, this Love Lies Bleeding is a pale imitation of gritty, mainstream action movies with the gloss of being low budget and 'independent'. It comes from Sony's direct to video line and to complete the ugly package, poor misguided Christian "What Happened To My Career" Slater doesn't star but instead plays an unfortunate bad guy.
No, even more unfortunately, the wan and forgettable Brian Geraghty stars in Love Lies Bleeding as Duke, an Iraq war veteran with trouble coping with his return to America. Engaged to be married to Amber (Step Up Jenna Dewan), Duke struggles to find work after he spent time in prison on an assault charge not long after his return. Our heroes are quite down on their luck when some gang bangers make things worse by robbing them. Angry, Duke trades his car for a gun and plans a confrontation. What he gets instead is a sack full of fat cash.
Turns out the bangers had run afoul of some crooked DEA agents lead by Agent Pollen (Slater). The Mexican standoff that ensued left all but Pollen dead when Duke arrived. Seeing the bag of money Duke doesn't hesitate. Unfortunately, Pollen isn't dead and is soon on the trail of Duke and Amber who think they have won the lottery. Now the crooked cops want their money back and Pollen wants revenge and to secure their silence.
The first act of Love Lies Bleeding is a torturous 40 minutes of bland dialogue and casual racism as our two Anglo heroes face off against ethnic gang members at every turn. The blandness of it all compounded by a repeated monologue about Lime-Aid and life lived in a hammock. Don't ask. The second act becomes surprisingly compelling as director Keith Samples works his way around the bland dialogue and his overmatched young actors to create a compelling chase scene set inside a casino. The compelling part ends when the chase does and we are thrust back into this couple's dull romance.
On the bright side, there is a more interesting movie trapped in the margins. About half way through Love Lies Bleeding we are introduced to our one good cop, detective Alice Sands played by Tara Summers. The Boston Legal regular brings a quirky energy to this underwritten role. With unexpected humor, Summers applies the kind of skills one could only learn while working with James Spader and William Shatner. Acting while acknowledging the ludicrousness of it all with the glint in her eyes, Summers steals the few scenes she gets and leaves us longing for more time with her and her bumbling partner played by Jacob Vargas.
It's a shame the movie couldn't have been about the two New Mexico cops stumbling on the clichéd lovers on the run story. They could have regarded the story from afar with a disbelieving air and played the whole thing for comedy. I imagine Alice as apoplectic at the thought of such a ludicrous plot as this while her partner fumbles his words and plays the fool. That is the movie I wish this were, but it's not. Love Lies Bleeding is yet another faux indie pretending to be gritty and poetic while its only achievement remains being written and filmed.
That said, I really love Tara Summers. I can't wait to see more of her.
