Flesh and Bone (film)

Last updated
Flesh and Bone
Flesh and Bone (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steve Kloves
Written bySteve Kloves
Produced by Mark Rosenberg
Paula Weinstein
Starring
Cinematography Philippe Rousselot
Edited byMia Goldman
Music by Thomas Newman
Production
companies
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • November 5, 1993 (1993-11-05)
Running time
126 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$9,488,998 (US) [1]

Flesh and Bone is a 1993 American neo noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Steve Kloves that stars Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid and James Caan. Gwyneth Paltrow is featured in an early role, for which she received some praise. [2]

Contents

Plot

A rural Texas family finds a mute boy in their front yard. They take the boy in, feed him, and put him to bed while they try to figure out what happened to him. During the night, the boy wakes up and lets a stranger into the house. The man and the boy rob the house together. When the father surprises the burglar, they exchange gunfire. Drawn by the sound, the burglar kills the mother as well. He asks his son if there is anyone else in the house. The boy reluctantly nods, and his father goes upstairs to kill the family's young son, leaving only their crying baby alive.

25 years later, the boy is living a solitary life as a man named Arlis. He has a vending machine business which keeps him traveling all over Texas. At one of his stops, he meets a stripper named Kay who is too drunk to do her job. He drives Kay home and helps her leave her degenerate husband. Arlis resists Kay's advances for a while before they finally fall in love.

One night, Arlis answers a knock at the motel door. It is a young woman named Ginnie, a petty thief he has seen on his rounds. Ginnie asks for help with her car. Arlis follows her to the vehicle only to find that his father Roy is waiting for him. He has been shot and needs Arlis to tend to the wound.

Kay offers Ginnie some nightclothes from her suitcase. Ginnie sees a photograph and asks about it. Kay explains it was her family. Both Arlis and his father eventually realize that Kay was the baby that survived Roy's massacre. Arlis leaves Kay in order to protect her from his father.

Roy has Ginnie lure Kay to the abandoned farmhouse of her infancy. Arlis tracks them down and confronts his father. Neither man lets on to Kay why they are there. As she explores the fields with Ginnie, Roy taunts Arlis about not having the stomach to shoot him. He says he has to kill Kay because she is a loose end, and Arlis will not stop him because they are "flesh and bone".

Arlis kills Roy and takes Kay away from the house. He leaves her at the motel and resumes his solitary life.

Cast

Location

Principal photography began on October 5, 1992 and completed on December 26, 1992.

It was filmed in Lockhart and Marfa, Texas, as well as at the Mustang Mott store owned by Maxine McCoy, in Westhoff, Texas.[ citation needed ]

Producer Mark Rosenberg died of a heart attack suffered on the film's location in Stanton, Texas. As the end credits begin, the film is dedicated to him. [3]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, Flesh and Bone holds a 70% approval rating from 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. [4] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 57 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwyneth Paltrow</span> American actress and businesswoman (born 1972)

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<i>A Perfect Murder</i> 1998 American film

A Perfect Murder is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen. It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Dial M for Murder, though the characters' names have been changed and much of the plot has been rewritten and altered from its original form. Loosely based on the play by Frederick Knott, the screenplay was written by Patrick Smith Kelly.

<i>Shallow Hal</i> 2001 film by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Shallow Hal is a 2001 American romantic comedy film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black about a man who falls in love with a 300-pound woman after being hypnotized into only seeing a person's inner beauty. Directed by the Farrelly brothers, it was filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina as well as Sterling and Princeton, Massachusetts at Wachusett Mountain. The supporting cast features Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, and Susan Ward. Shallow Hal was released in theaters on November 9, 2001 by 20th Century Fox, and grossed $141 million against a $40 million budget.

<i>Sylvia</i> (2003 film) 2003 British film

Sylvia is a 2003 British biographical drama film directed by Christine Jeffs and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, and Michael Gambon. It tells a story based on the real-life romance between prominent poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The film begins with their meeting at Cambridge in 1956 and ends with Sylvia Plath's suicide in 1963.

<i>Hard Eight</i> (film) 1996 film by Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Eight is a 1996 American crime film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson in his feature directorial debut, and starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. It is the expansion of the short film Cigarettes & Coffee. The film follows the life of a senior gambler and a homeless man. It premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Thief</i> (film) 1981 film by Michael Mann

Thief is a 1981 American neo-noir heist action thriller film directed and written by Michael Mann in his feature film debut and starring James Caan in the title role, a professional safecracker trying to escape his life of crime, and Tuesday Weld as his wife. The supporting cast includes James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina, and Willie Nelson. The screenplay is inspired by the book The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar, a memoir by former cat burglar Frank Hohimer. The original musical score was composed and performed by Tangerine Dream.

<i>View from the Top</i> 2003 film by Bruno Barreto

View from the Top is a 2003 American romantic comedy film directed by Bruno Barreto and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Joshua Malina, Mark Ruffalo, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers, and Kelly Preston. The film follows a young woman (Paltrow) from a small town who sets out to fulfill her dream of becoming a flight attendant.

<i>Fever Pitch</i> (2005 film) 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film

Fever Pitch is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by the Farrelly brothers. It stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon and is a remake of the British 1997 film of the same title. Nick Hornby, who had written the original 1992 book and the 1997 screenplay adaptation, acted as an executive producer for the American remake.

<i>Duets</i> (film) 2000 American film

Duets is a 2000 American road trip film co-produced and directed by Bruce Paltrow and written by John Byrum. The motion picture features an ensemble cast with Gwyneth Paltrow, Huey Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maria Bello, Angie Dickinson, Scott Speedman, and Andre Braugher among others. The movie "revolves around the little known world of karaoke competitions and the wayward characters who inhabit it."

<i>Hush</i> (1998 film) 1998 American film

Hush is a 1998 American thriller film starring Jessica Lange and Gwyneth Paltrow.

<i>Bounce</i> (film) 2000 American romantic drama film by Don Roos

Bounce is a 2000 American romantic drama film starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow and directed by Don Roos.

<i>Running with Scissors</i> (film) 2006 film by Ryan Murphy

Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Ryan Murphy, based on Augusten Burroughs' 2002 memoir of the same name, and starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh and Gwyneth Paltrow. The semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood, based on his best-selling book, received mixed reviews as a film.

<i>Proof</i> (2005 film) 2005 film by John Madden

Proof is a 2005 American drama film directed by John Madden and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hope Davis. The screenplay was written by Rebecca Miller and David Auburn and based on Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.

<i>Emma</i> (1996 theatrical film) 1996 period film directed by Douglas McGrath

Emma is a 1996 period comedy film based on the 1815 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Written and directed by Douglas McGrath, the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Jeremy Northam.

<i>Switchback</i> (film) 1997 American film

Switchback is a 1997 American thriller film written and directed by Jeb Stuart. It stars Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, Jared Leto, Ted Levine, William Fichtner and R. Lee Ermey. An FBI agent tracks his son's kidnapper to Amarillo, Texas, where two lawmen are seeking to use the case in their election bid.

<i>City of Industry</i> (film) 1997 American film

City of Industry is a 1997 American neo-noir crime thriller film starring Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff and Timothy Hutton. It is directed by John Irvin, produced by Evzen Kolar and Ken Solarz and written by Solarz.

<i>Shout</i> (film) 1991 film by Jeffrey Hornaday

Shout is a 1991 American musical romance film directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and starring John Travolta as a music teacher who introduces rock and roll to a west Texas home for boys in 1955.

<i>Mortdecai</i> (film) 2015 American film

Mortdecai is a 2015 American action comedy film directed by David Koepp and written by Eric Aronson. The film is adapted from the novel series Mortdecai written by Kyril Bonfiglioli. It stars Johnny Depp in the title role and features Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany and Jeff Goldblum. Released by Lionsgate on January 23, 2015, Mortdecai was a box office flop, grossing $47.3 million against its estimated $60 million budget, and was critically panned.

<i>Ithaca</i> (film) 2015 film by Meg Ryan

Ithaca is a 2015 American drama film directed by Meg Ryan and written by Erik Jendresen. It is based on the 1943 novel The Human Comedy by William Saroyan. The film stars Alex Neustaedter, Jack Quaid, Meg Ryan, Sam Shepard, Hamish Linklater and Tom Hanks. The film was released on September 9, 2016, by Momentum Pictures.

<i>The Politician</i> (TV series) American dramedy television series

The Politician is an American comedy-drama television series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan and released on Netflix. The trio also serves as executive producers with Alexis Martin Woodall, Ben Platt, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The series centers on the story of Payton Hobart (Platt), a wealthy Santa Barbaran, and each season revolves around a different political race his character is involved in.

References

  1. ↑ Flesh and Bone at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ Maslin, Janet (5 November 1993). "Building a Future on a Shaky Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  3. ↑ DVD credits
  4. ↑ "Flesh and Bone". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media . Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Flesh and Bone Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.