The Salton Sea

A visually stunning film, but one that lags behind its much stronger and denser brethren in terms of content (8MM, Requiem for a Dream, etc.). (11.07.2004)

Wilderness. Visually captivating in the mold of 8MM. One of Val Kilmer’s best roles and a parade of extraordinarily wacky bad guys – the noseless Vincent D’Onofrio properly turned my stomach. But The Salton Sea stumbles somewhere along the way. The pseudo-artsy visual interludes (the trumpeter, the sea, the tree) have no place in it and, at the same time, the harmony between the incessantly dynamic form and the powerfully psychological content is creaky. In this respect, Joel Schumacher was better, as he remained firmly in the psychological and escalated the dynamics only in selected scenes so that he didn’t drown in them. (15.02.2003)

The Salton Sea is neither flawless nor groundbreaking. It's simply a well-made genre film with a functional script and a range of interesting, fully realized characters. The film ventures into uncertain territory with its attempts at psychological, artful scenes, but fortunately, the crime storyline prevails, featuring wild, tragicomic camera excursions into a bizarre community of addicts. Val Kilmer delivers a strong performance, Deborah Unger provides reliable acting, and the repulsive criminal types portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio and Luis Guzmán, create a mix that can satisfy even more discerning film fans. Overall impression: 75%. (30.04.2007)