Another indie flick. Okay, well, this one is worth a look. Okay, there were moments I was watching Mickey Rourke play fictitious has-been jazz trumpeter Nate Poole, I was thinking to myself, uh, has-been is right. Still, this noir film has a good story. And, importantly, it has Bill Murray as the gangsta antagonist. I can’t remember watching Bill Murray act in a film I didn’t like. Maybe I just like Bill Murray. I will admit I had a hard time accepting the young Lily Luster (actor Megan Fox) actually falls for Mickey Rourke in this movie, but fall she does, and as long as you can believe she has wings to fly, it all works out right.
The last thing Poole sets eyes on minutes before a suppose-ed execution style death is a soaring eagle upon which suddenly he is given a last chance at life. Wandering in the desert, he comes upon a carnival featuring a wing-ed woman, not merely beautiful, exquisite. She is rare indeed, so naturally, men not only covet but want to make a buck off her. What follows are the deadly games men will play with each other as they vie to possess and exploit the exotic wing-ed woman. This story is a blend of real-life stuff and the supernatural, landing it in the realm of magical realism. It is also allegorical, a story of a man’s redemption, who whilst saving an innocent angel is himself saved. I can forgive this movie it’s overly long close-ups and preoccupations with stylin’, I so rarely see a film noir that gets magical realism and film story right. 