One False MoveEvery sin leaves a mark, like ripples in a pond. But even those ripples can become tidal waves that come back home and threaten everything you cherish. One False Move is a crime thriller that begins with an ultra-violent stick up for drugs and money in Los Angeles before making its way to the small town of Star City, Arkansas, where Sheriff Dale "Hurricane" Dixon (Bill Paxton) keeps law and order in his down home kind of way. En route to Star City are a trio of killers, including "Fantasia" (Cynda Williams), whose real name is Lila, and who was Dale's erstwhile lover and mother of his secret, illegitimate child. And when Dale learns that Lila is coming home under criminal circumstances, he is forced into a crisis where no one will get out unscathed.
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One False Move begins with a prologue of sorts depicting a violent assault, robbery, and finally spree killing of a drug dealer and his friends. It begins innocuously enough, when Fantasia visits a few friends having a small party and recording themselves dancing with a camcorder. Suddenly, her boyfriend, Ray Malcolm (Billy Bob Thornton, who co-wrote One False Move)--who, like Lila, is also from Star City--breaks in and threatens the partygoers at gunpoint to give him access to a drug dealer's house, where he intends to steal his money and drugs. Accompanying Ray and Fantasia is a cold sociopath who goes by the name of "Pluto" (Michael Beach), who is reported to be unusually intelligent, but is also a sadist who favors knives and was Ray's bunkmate in prison. Ray and Pluto do their best to ensure that there are no witnesses to their crimes, and are reminiscent of the protagonists of In Cold Blood. How this trio came together in the first place is unimportant to One False Move, which instead examines their bloody adventure across the country and the dissolution of any semblance of trust they may have had for one another. For example, Lila discovers the dealer's child hiding and violates this agreement of "no witnesses" by making sure that Ray doesn't find him and kill him. This is the first of many moments where audiences will likely try to identify if this is the "one false move" to which the title alludes, although there are many more possibilities. After the police find the child, they identify Fantasia, Ray, and Pluto as the culprits, and the trio are on the run. The video recording gives the detectives in charge of the case--McFeely (Earl Billings) and Cole (Jim Metzler)--a lead to Star City. As a courtesy, they call up Dale, who is so enthused about the prospect of having the "big time" police come to his small town that he appears like a country bumpkin to them and the audience. Yet much of the rest of One False Move deals with how the audience will be constantly forced to shift its interpretation of Dale from start to finish.
Dale has earned the nickname "Hurricane"; although he claims that he doesn't know why he's called that, it becomes clear to the audience that he moves through his job with both a breezy attitude and also moves with a kind of whirlwind-like verve to the point that his deputy jokes that he's never been able to finish a breakfast with him, as he is constantly jumping from one event to the next. Dale is a family man, with a wife and eight year old daughter. When Cole and McFeely contact Dale, the Star City sheriff only adds to the perception that he--and potentially others in southern states--are inherently racist through an off-hand comment about the criminals, commenting that they must be "colored". For the audience of One False Move, this would probably mark Dale as a negative character, hardly the kind of protagonist to carry this movie. And One False Move even toys with the audience's expectations about this when he is out on patrol and gets distracted by a black father with his child getting ice cream, suggesting through the film's visual language that he is giving extra scrutiny to the black family because he is biased. But One False Move doesn't let that characterization stay so narrow and prejudiced. Instead, despite Dale's rustic upbringing which does include racially insensitive language, he himself is not fundamentally a racist. On the contrary, he sees himself as the guardian of Star City, and believes himself to be a kind of "paladin", defending his small town and seeing himself as its protector, black or white. But Dale is a bit puffed up with himself, despite his good intentions. He invites the two big city cops to a barbeque at his house, which helps them bond over smoked meat and alcohol. Cole learns about how important Dale is to his family, and Dale's wife makes it clear that she knows that her husband is too naive to handle the kind of trouble that's coming. But it is another off-hand comment--this time a conversation between Cole and McFeely--that shakes Dale out of his dream of joining the "big leagues" and trying out as a cop in L.A., when he inadvertently eavesdrops on the two city cops poking fun at him. This moment helps ground Dale for what comes next, even if the shadow of that sting also propels the film to its sad conclusion.
Dale has kept a secret from virtually everyone, and even denies its reality to himself, specifically that he and Lila share a son named Byron who was born out of wedlock. According to Dale, he helped Lila out of a shoplifting situation when she was a teenager, believing that she wasn't bad, but just "high spirited". After that, Lila--then a virgin, according to her--had an affair with Dale before the legal age of consent and became pregnant. Dale knows this to be true, but has denied the existence of this fact because it challenges his view of himself as a wholesome family man and self-perceived scion of his community. What One False Move succeeds exceptionally well at doing is not taking these elements of the plot and exploiting them to make Dale no more than a hypocrite. Also owing to the great Bill Paxton's characteristic warmth and enthusiasm at playing "good ol' boys", Dale becomes a more nuanced character than many films like this bother with exploring. The most important part of One False Move comes with Dale's decision to confront Lila and compel her to entrap Ray and Pluto en route to Star City. More specifically, it is the night that he spends with her (in a platonic sense) at her secret retreat where she is laying low so that her brother could bring her son to visit her. Lila tries to entice Dale to turn a blind eye to her crimes and let her go, but Dale is forced to decide between upholding the law and his still present attraction to Lila, as well as an admission of his sins to himself. Subsequently, the last act of One False Move ratchets the tension very high, not just for the inevitable, bloody confrontation between cops and robbers, but especially because of the way that the movie forces the audience to empathize with Dale and Lila, and also feel forced to choose between them as well.
Recommended for: Fans of a taut and gripping crime thriller that proves that compelling stories and character studies don't require a big budget (this film was made for the comparatively small amount of three million dollars.) One False Move is a challenging story, dealing with intense violence (the opening scene has unsettling echoes of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), teenage pregnancy, and racial themes, but for audiences willing to let themselves be challenged by these, there are many riches to be had in this excellent film.
Dale has earned the nickname "Hurricane"; although he claims that he doesn't know why he's called that, it becomes clear to the audience that he moves through his job with both a breezy attitude and also moves with a kind of whirlwind-like verve to the point that his deputy jokes that he's never been able to finish a breakfast with him, as he is constantly jumping from one event to the next. Dale is a family man, with a wife and eight year old daughter. When Cole and McFeely contact Dale, the Star City sheriff only adds to the perception that he--and potentially others in southern states--are inherently racist through an off-hand comment about the criminals, commenting that they must be "colored". For the audience of One False Move, this would probably mark Dale as a negative character, hardly the kind of protagonist to carry this movie. And One False Move even toys with the audience's expectations about this when he is out on patrol and gets distracted by a black father with his child getting ice cream, suggesting through the film's visual language that he is giving extra scrutiny to the black family because he is biased. But One False Move doesn't let that characterization stay so narrow and prejudiced. Instead, despite Dale's rustic upbringing which does include racially insensitive language, he himself is not fundamentally a racist. On the contrary, he sees himself as the guardian of Star City, and believes himself to be a kind of "paladin", defending his small town and seeing himself as its protector, black or white. But Dale is a bit puffed up with himself, despite his good intentions. He invites the two big city cops to a barbeque at his house, which helps them bond over smoked meat and alcohol. Cole learns about how important Dale is to his family, and Dale's wife makes it clear that she knows that her husband is too naive to handle the kind of trouble that's coming. But it is another off-hand comment--this time a conversation between Cole and McFeely--that shakes Dale out of his dream of joining the "big leagues" and trying out as a cop in L.A., when he inadvertently eavesdrops on the two city cops poking fun at him. This moment helps ground Dale for what comes next, even if the shadow of that sting also propels the film to its sad conclusion.
Dale has kept a secret from virtually everyone, and even denies its reality to himself, specifically that he and Lila share a son named Byron who was born out of wedlock. According to Dale, he helped Lila out of a shoplifting situation when she was a teenager, believing that she wasn't bad, but just "high spirited". After that, Lila--then a virgin, according to her--had an affair with Dale before the legal age of consent and became pregnant. Dale knows this to be true, but has denied the existence of this fact because it challenges his view of himself as a wholesome family man and self-perceived scion of his community. What One False Move succeeds exceptionally well at doing is not taking these elements of the plot and exploiting them to make Dale no more than a hypocrite. Also owing to the great Bill Paxton's characteristic warmth and enthusiasm at playing "good ol' boys", Dale becomes a more nuanced character than many films like this bother with exploring. The most important part of One False Move comes with Dale's decision to confront Lila and compel her to entrap Ray and Pluto en route to Star City. More specifically, it is the night that he spends with her (in a platonic sense) at her secret retreat where she is laying low so that her brother could bring her son to visit her. Lila tries to entice Dale to turn a blind eye to her crimes and let her go, but Dale is forced to decide between upholding the law and his still present attraction to Lila, as well as an admission of his sins to himself. Subsequently, the last act of One False Move ratchets the tension very high, not just for the inevitable, bloody confrontation between cops and robbers, but especially because of the way that the movie forces the audience to empathize with Dale and Lila, and also feel forced to choose between them as well.
Recommended for: Fans of a taut and gripping crime thriller that proves that compelling stories and character studies don't require a big budget (this film was made for the comparatively small amount of three million dollars.) One False Move is a challenging story, dealing with intense violence (the opening scene has unsettling echoes of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), teenage pregnancy, and racial themes, but for audiences willing to let themselves be challenged by these, there are many riches to be had in this excellent film.