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Memorable, crazy movie

hyped garbage

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I wasn't expecting much at the start of watching this low budget comedy, but found myself liking both the plot and the players. The film is launched under three names, "Strange hearts", "Road to riches" and "Rat in a can". It's more of a drama than a comedy, and stars well known actors Robert Forster, Kip Pardue, Rose McGowan and Harry Hamlin.Young Henry, a Texan carpenter, is a lucky naive honest guy, able to charm everyone. In addition to that he's a lucky one. As audience a a game show he meets up with the quite more unhappy and unlucky scam artist Jack Waters, which has a female scam artist and show girl companion, Moira. Henry doesn't really understand they are pulling his leg, and Jack sees every opportunity to exploit him and his wallet. After charming audience at a game show, Henry is asked to take over as a game show host, and the show is on. Telling more will spoil.The film is easy entertainment, but has a cult side to it which I like. Not your average stupid American comedy, but a charming one, due to the charming two leading guys. Forster is good as the slick con artist, and Pardue is elegant naive charmer. Rose McGowan I haven't seen better since the Grindhouse movies if Rodriguez and Tarantino, "Planet Terror" and "Death proof". (Haven't seen her TV-series "Nip/Tuck" and "Charmed" though.) Forster is loved both by David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino, and the reasons are obvious after watching this, and Pardue delivers once again a great role here. This film has a certain feel of Lynch, and that is something likable as well.Some animal protectors will be put of on an idea of Jack's with a rat in a soda can, but remember that this is film. Production value is good, but the clue to the liking is that the good actors are making this a charming gem with good entertainment value. A little possible future cult movie, due to the actors.This is a film which easily could have been overdone, and also a film which could have been so much more. Charming anyway.

Maybe they should have used the alternate title, "Rat in the Can," instead of "Strange Hearts." Of course, if you go looking for "Strange hearts" on cable, you will have better luck trying "Roads to Riches."But, "Rat in the Can" is a good title to describe just how far Jack Waters (Robert Forster) has fallen in his luck. It's his million-dollar idea, and it's a winner if he can manage to go through with it. Forster (Jackie Brown) plays a lovable loser, who just can't get his act together. It is going to cost him the love of his life, Moira (Rose McGowan, who plays what I consider her best role to date as a stripper.) Smooth talking Texan Henry (Kip Pardue - Remember the Titans) is working his charm to drag her back home to keep her barefoot and pregnant."Friends" fans will find this slow, but it is a good romantic indie film.

The biggest star in this vehicle was Harry Hamlin, playing a character named Dan Smith, so that shows you how important that role was.Robert Forster, looking like a poor man's Alec Baldwin, plays Jack Waters, a middle-aged man who is a contestant on the live (on the air) game show "Road to Riches". He thinks he's going to win $50,000. He doesn't. He's so enraged he begins cursing and has to be physically restrained and led from the set. Strangely enough, despite this fact, and the fact he later destroys property--as well as making threats--he is never barred from the studio. That is just one example of the lack of believability in this film.The next character to enter the non-plot of this storyline is young Henry Fields played by Kip Pardue. Henry, new in town, is the poster child for naive yokel.Henry & Jack fall into conversation outside the studio and hook up.Jack takes Henry to a strip joint, where Henry sees Moira Kennedy(our third character--played by Rose McGowan), on stage, performing what is supposed to be an erotic, exotic Asian dance. What actually happened is, the girl came out and did a little wriggling and weaving that lasted maybe five minutes and was nothing exceptional.Moira is a friend of Jack's, so she's conveniently handy from then on.Nothing of much interest happens throughout the rest of the film. There's some kind of offer made by Dan Smith to Jack to screw over Henry for an undisclosed amount of money. Why Dan would make this offer was never clear.Eventually we have both men up for grabs by the unexceptional Moira. There's balding Jack, a loser old enough to be her grandfather, and Henry, another loser, dumber than dirt. Gosh! Golly! Gee-willikers Folks!--which one will she chose!? I know I didn't care.1 star

***Slight Spoilers Below*** I caught this film almost by accident this morning on cable, in just about the last place I'd expect to find it: HBO.This film is an easy match for anyone who enjoys any of Paul Thomas Anderson's early films, as it revisits some of the territory of 'Hard Eight' and Lodge Kerrigan's 'Claire Dolan'. Sorry, no Gwyneth Paltrow-as-a-hooker here, but this film explores a sort of strange, alternate universe at the center of our fickle, ADD American culture.The inimitable Robert Forster stars here as a sort of con-man (Jack), living off of the fringes of televised Game Shows and other short cons. He lives in a 'resident motel', as he works toward a big payoff scheme, his 'Rat in a Can'. I won't describe it here - you'll just have to see it for yourself.In any case, this film charts the Forster character's search for luck - if not a payoff - such that he and the Rose McGowan character (Moira, an 'exotic' dancer) can escape L.A. to retire in Mexico.Into this stalled romance-cum-caper stumbles Henry (Kip Pardue), who seems to have all of the luck that Jack lost, when his career as a child-actor went belly-up. Just let it be said that opportunities open up for Henry, and Jack tries and fails to exploit them.But the 'plot' here, while it is amusing, is not the thing to study - rather, it's the characters: They're not wacky, not over-the-top, not for people who'd just as soon be watching 'Friends'. Rather, these characters are on a voyage to discover their own 'centers' rather than try to rig other games and schemes to support themselves.Definitely worth a look, especially for fans of independent films. 6/10.