Feeling Minnesota (1996)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Steven Baigelman

Writer (WGA):

Steven Baigelman (written by)

Release Date:

13 September 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Just when she met the man of her dreams, along came her husband to ruin everything.

Plot:

An ex-convict and his bumbling crook brother fight for the same woman.

Plot Keywords:

Title Based On Song | Black Comedy | Independent Film

Cast

Keanu Reeves	...	Jjaks Clayton
Cameron Diaz	...	Freddie Clayton
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Sam Clayton
Delroy Lindo	...	Red
Dan Aykroyd	...	Det. Ben Costikyan
Courtney Love	...	Rhonda the Waitress
Drew Desmarais	...	Young Jjaks Clayton
Tuesday Weld	...	Nora Clayton
Aaron Michael Metchik	...	Young Sam Clayton
Russell Konstans	...	Joseph
David Alan Smith	...	Detective Lloyd
Bill Schoppert	...	Minister
Steve Ghizoni	...	Wedding Band Singer
Jack Walsh	...	Bob, at Gas Station
Buffy Sedlachek	...	Gas Station Attendant

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #33839) | Finland:K-16 | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:MA | Denmark:16 | France:U | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Fine Line Features

Trivia:

Feeling Minnesota's title was inspired by some lyrics in the Soundgarden song 'Outshined': "I just looked in the mirror/And things ain't looking so good/I'm looking California/And feeling Minnesota"

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Jjaks and Freddie escape and are driving in the red car, she opens the bottle of champagne and takes a drink with her right hand then hands it to Jjaks with the same right hand, but when the camera cuts to Jjaks, she is handing it with her left hand.

Quotes:

Freddie: Time is like an orange. It's round. It repeats itself. Everything happens for a reason.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Independents' days (1997)

Soundtrack:

Ring of Fire

Unusual drama with plenty of points of interest, but also its fair share of problems.

Most films starring Keanu Reeves or Cameron Diaz are a safe bet for a big Hollywood blockbuster. This one stars both, yet is a rather low-profile affair which many poeple won't have heard of. Ironically, Reeves gives one of the best performances of his career because he isn't asked to play a one-dimensional man of action. Diaz is eye-opening too, as a foul-mouthed girl trapped in a dead-end existence.

The story tells of a young, aimless ex-con named Jacks Clayton (Reeves) who returns to the uninviting Minnesota town of his birth at the request of his mother (Tuesday Weld). She wants him there for the wedding of his elder brother Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio). However, when Jacks arrives he realises straight away that there's something rather fishy about the wedding. It turns out that Sam's bride Freddy (Diaz) has no desire to get married at all (she's only doing it because a nasty local gangster has bullied her into it). Before the wedding party is even over, Jacks has had sex with Freddy in the toilets; before the week is out, the pair have eloped intending to start over in Las Vegas. Suffice to say, Sam is pretty annoyed by what young Jacks has done....

Feeling Minnesota is a gritty, occasionally funny drama which benefits from its unfamiliar setting. Within its own admittedly twisted logic, the film's odd narrative works reasonably well. However, the characters are so amoral that it becomes hard to care what happens to any of them - including the supposed hero Jacks (who would make a fitting bad guy in most other pictures). The amount of coarse language is rather jarring too. You don't need to find swearing offensive to notice it, but if coarse language does bother you then it's safe to say that you'll be offended by the quantity of it in this film. The plot twists and turns in a very unpredictable manner, and makes for an interesting - if not entirely believable - experience.