MovieChat Forums > Tequila Sunrise (1988) Discussion > Good movie, but 2 problems

Good movie, but 2 problems

posted 13 years ago by ggerod
8 replies | jump to latest

1. I don't think they gave anywhere near enough exposition to Gibson and Pfeiffer's relationship. They are just suddenly madly in love (well I suppose he was kind of loving her from afar, but then she "switched sides" VERY suddenly). One minute she is having a hot and heavy romance with Nick. Then suddenly she is having hot tub sex with Gibson. And this is without really spending much time with him at all. Sure, he had been coming to her restaurant, but they had never "dated". Then she caters his party, then they are boffing in the hot tub!
Fine, but give the audience some reason to believe this. They should have had a deeper relationship before Nick came into the picture. Either that or her falling out with Nick should have been much messier than it was.

Nick "betrayed" her by using her to get to Mac. But he DID fall in love with her (and vice versa). When she found out about the deception, suddenly it is over?? But it wasn't really, she was deciding if she would see him that night after they had the confrontation at her restaurant bar. Next thing you know, she is in Gibson's arms, saying she loves him, and agreeing to marry him! What?

So, I think they did this part badly, and it hurts the film.

2. I don't know if this is a plot hole or what. Everybody is watching Mac's house. The LA cops, the Feds, the Mexican Federale troops, everybody. They know this big drug deal is going to go down there and everyone is waiting. After Mac and JoAnne have their hot tub tryst, Nick finally manages to get JoAnne away from the house by sending her a false message about one of her workers being sick so she has to leave Mac's house. He tells her all this sh!t is about to go down, and it is extremely dangerous for her to be there, it could lead to her death or criminal charges, wrong place at the wrong time, etc etc.

Then, he gives her a gun and let's her go!!!!!!!! WTF????!!!!
Not only was that strange and unbelievable, but to make it worse, she then proceeds directly back to Mac's house!!! DOUBLE WTF!!!???

There is no way anybody in their right mind would go back into that powderkeg after being warned off, and there is NO WAY Nick would let her go back in there after waiting 5+ hours to extricate her from that location. So that part was odd as well.

[–] BoSoxRule 13 years ago

"Nick "betrayed" her by using her to get to Mac. But he DID fall in love with her (and vice versa). When she found out about the deception, suddenly it is over?? But it wasn't really, she was deciding if she would see him that night after they had the confrontation at her restaurant bar. Next thing you know, she is in Gibson's arms, saying she loves him, and agreeing to marry him! What?

So, I think they did this part badly, and it hurts the film."

Totally agree with this. The shift of her interest from Nick to Mac is so sudden and drastic that it borders on the absurd. The fact that she's SOOOOO angry with Nick is what I really find puzzling. He was a cop doing his job, as he explained to her. And I can't help but see her suddenly going for Mac as nothing more than a big "F You" to Nick.

I think we in the audience are supposed to like Mac and hate Nick, but I have the opposite opinion. I don't care how nice Mac seems, he's still a drug dealer who consorts with unsavory characters like Carlos. But I guess since he looks like Mel Gibson, most women can get past that.

I'm happiest...in the saddle.

[–] LTUM 13 years ago

dude, you also gotta factor in mac's decision to be legit, and that he had STOPPED dealing prior to the start of the movie timeline. it was the lawyer, then carlos, pulling him back in and he was only humoring them for personal loyalty, not to resume dealing. was gonna be one last thing, then finished. (but it went wrong for various reasons)

i agree they wanted us to hate nick. i find that impossible since russell was too cool in the role. though, i did dislike his betrayal of his friends.

don't know how much of a fan you are, cursory or what, but there is tons of scuttlebutt about this movie. for one, towne wrote mac as different from how we saw him. and the story turned out different too. i am sure (though only guessing) that some of the pacing problems you point out are a result of the studio's strongarming towne to change this or that. i am sure of that. towne wanted mac much darker than the one we saw. i think (not sure) maybe he died in the script? but the studio wanted to play it different, for marketing. i think they even reshot scenes after tests. this was the beginning of the test audience stats era, and they used it to alter a whole lot of things about towne's script.

just saying, some of these seeming incongruences may be a result of this 'tweaking' by the studio geniuses

"Cos... f__k's sake, who'd wanna keep trying to shoot a nice guy like me?" p. 315, VLM

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] morganseer (4) 8 years ago

"The fact that she's SOOOOO angry with Nick is what I really find puzzling. He was a cop doing his job, as he explained to her."

You know, we humans really hate having our romantic feelings used for someone else's practical purposes.

But the way I see the conflict in this film is that Jo Ann meets a nice guy, gets excited about her new relationship, but then discovers that Mac has deep feelings for her, and it turns her on. She explores the new relationship, and finds that the chemistry is even better with him than with Nick. It's not an unusual scenario at all. That's why people who seem promising sometimes disappear from our lives, or we disappear from theirs.

Of course the fact that she is now turned on by Mac by no means diminishes her anger at Nick for having used her. And maybe she even uses that to justify her breakup with him.

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

I don't think they gave anywhere near enough exposition to Gibson and Pfeiffer's relationship. ... I think they did this part badly, and it hurts the film.

Well I agree with you that they did it badly, but they didn't do a lot right with this film any way. 90% of the running time is focussed on the Nick/Jo, Jo/Mac relationships and we end up still not caring a hell of a lot anyway, because as you have noted so much that goes down, doesn't make a lot of sense and/or doesn't ring true.

Take Carlos for instance. The feared Mexican drug boss ends up almost looking like someone's slightly demented, but kindly uncle, who wanders around without any hired muscle prompting DEA agent Maguire to try and take him and Mac down completely by himself, whilst breaking the law in doing so. IMO laughable!🐭

[–] LukeLovesFilm28 10 years ago

1. They did set up an actual history between Mel and Michelle compared to Michelle and Kurt.

2. Carlos is a name. No one knows his face... at least until Kurt figures it out.

[–] lynnrnsd 10 years ago

I think that when she found out that part of the reason Mac stopped selling drugs was so that he'd be good enough for JoAnne, she was really touched. That and her anger at Nick led to her falling for him so fast. At least, that's just my take on things. It didn't help that after his big "I'm crazy about you and I don't care what you know about Mac" speech, Nick eavesdropped on her call.

[–] LTUM (1071) 6 years ago

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