A man sits alone in a dingy room ablaze with fire, calmly playing the trumpet and reflecting on the tragic life about to end. He introduces himself to the audience and immediately makes it clear that he knows little about himself beyond his name, which itself often changes. Rather than simply tell his story, he asks his listeners to allow him to describe the events leading up to this last scene and decide for themselves what kind of a person he really is. “Am I Judas…” he asks, “…or Hamlet? You decide.” In an eerie charge to the audience, he not only asks, but begs us to make a judgment call about his character – something that he himself cannot do.
This is the opening scene of Castle Rock Entertainment’s new film “The Salton Sea”, starring Val Kilmer as the tortured Danny Parker/Tom Van Allen, a man in search of answers to help him deal with a tragic past and uncertain future. Directed by DJ Caruso and boasting a supporting cast that includes Vincent D’Onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard, and Deborah Kara Unger, “The Salton Sea” is basically an intense and powerful character study. It chronicles the journey of a man who loses everything when his wife (Chandra West) is murdered in a freak accident on a trip they took to the Salton Sea in California. The memory of this single experience is with him every day as he simultaneously tries to deal with her loss and create some kind of existence without her. He eventually becomes a crystal methamphetamine addict, partying for days on end and surrounded by a group of loyal but pitiful friends.
While this plot description may be reminiscent of your average disillusioned protagonist who ends up finding solace in drugs and alcohol, “The Salton Sea” is anything but a “typical” movie. A 700-word article can hardly do the complexity of the story justice, and so I’m not even going to try. There are twists and turns around every corner, keeping the audience on its toes, wondering what exactly is going on in the mind of Danny Parker. The film’s caption reads “If you’re looking for the truth, you’ve come to the wrong place”. How appropriate. Ten minutes into the movie leaves you guessing as to what the reality of this character is and wondering if you are in fact ever going to find out.
Val Kilmer and DJ Caruso were recently in Toronto promoting “The Salton Sea”. I had a chance to speak with both of them about the movie and its production. “I wanted to make a film that was a filmmaker’s film as opposed to a studio film,” says DJ. “It was just such a challenging screenplay and I thought finally, a film that I feel I can put some of myself into, not just a film where I would be executing someone else’s vision but executing my vision.”
Although he loved the script right off the bat, Val admits to being a little nervous about the potential for failure because of the immense complexity of the film. He says, “I was a little concerned about the broadness and disparity of styles coming together…it almost never works. I don’t want to slam anybody, but for example, in “Fifth Element”, the director says of himself that he took on too much, there was too much going on to get on with the story…and this could’ve just as easily not worked because it’s too much. But it ended up being just nicely balanced.”
If anything, “The Salton Sea” could be described as an in-depth character study. When asked how they themselves would describe the character of Danny Parker/Tom Van Allen, DJ responded, “In my estimation, it’s a character who’s asking the audience to tell him who he is. That makes him even more complex because he himself has no idea. He’s gotten so lost, things have gotten so convoluded, and when he ultimately does what he thinks is the right thing, that still doesn’t provide the answer. Along this journey you hope he discovers who he is, but he doesn’t know…which is what makes it interesting.”
“The Salton Sea” is, bottom line, an incredible movie. Poetic and mournful from start to finish, it also is able to intersperse humour in the midst of tragedy. The audience is given no choice but to become deeply involved with its character’s lives. As Val says, Danny is faced with “the most important questions we can ask ourselves or live through”.
Why the title? The Salton Sea is a historical body of water located in the Imperial Valley (Southern California). Not a very well-known area, it is described as having “an eerie stillness” to it. The title, therefore is completely poetic. DJ explains, “It served as a metaphor for our character…like his life it once was beautiful and now it has become tragic.”
“The Salton Sea” opens April 26, but only on limited release (Toronto, New York and Los Angeles). More widespread release to follow at a later date.
