Synopsis
Haunted by memories of his father murdering a family, Arlis Sweeney prefers to keep to himself, focusing his energy on his work. One day, the traumatic past that eats away at him returns when he meets Kay Davies, a woman connected to the bloody event. Against all odds, Arlis and Kay fall in love; however, when his father, Roy, reappears in his life -- with the coldhearted Ginnie in tow -- Arlis must deal with his past demons.
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Cast
- Meg RyanKay Davies
- Dennis QuaidArlis Sweeney
- James CaanRoy Sweeney
- Gwyneth PaltrowGinnie
- Julia McNealSarah Willets
- Ron KuhlmanClem Willets
- Jerry SwindallYoung Arlis
- Ryan BohlsScotty Willets
- Ez PerezBoy in Suit
- Craig EricksonTiny Ted
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
Hardly a barrel of laughs then, but this slowburn tale sears its way onto the synapses and then flat refuses to budge. - 78
Austin Chronicle
Flesh and Bone is far from a comfortable experience to witness, so if you like your films “over easy” this will not be to your liking. But if you like entertainment that cuts to the marrow, then Flesh and Bone is something to see. - 75
ReelViews
Flesh and Bone is all suspenseful buildup without shoot-outs, chases, and explosions, and its conclusion doesn't demand a neatly-packaged resolution. More importantly, it's one of the few successful '40s-type noir thrillers to grace the big screen in recent years. - 75
Boston Globe
Few directors lavish as much tenderness upon life's bruised survivors as Kloves does, and many a more prominent director has failed to find in the dust-choked West Texas plains the wistfulness with which Quaid and Ryan fill their most solid and shtick-free work yet. [05 Nov 1993, p.42] - 70
The New Yorker
Although the plot comes to rely on a particularly outlandish series of coincidences, it’s a credit to Kloves’s skill that you can almost put this out of your mind and enjoy his long, suspended scenes, brimming with lust or the need to lash out. - 70
The New York Times
Most of what keeps Flesh and Bone so gripping is the ways in which the characters themselves evolve. - 60
Washington Post
Kloves has taken us on one more ride down this same old Texas highway, with its cheap motels and gloomy cowboys. Ain't much more to it than that. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The past traps the present, fate smothers spontaneity, and all of the dialog sounds like Dialog - not what people would say, but what characters would say. The film is depressing for some of the right reasons, and all of the wrong ones.
