Ryan O'Neal is Tim Madden, an unsuccessful writer with some rather odd women in his life. He drinks too much and after an evening of particularly wild events, he has a new tattoo. Oh and a severed head turns up. He doesn't remember a thing.
On the surface "Though Guys Don't Dance" is a neo-noir thriller with a con, a drug deal and a murder - actually several murders. The plot seems like a Coen brothers work, but this film isn't really concerned with plot. At its foundation is a small New England town, quiet in the off season. It's the sort of place a Steven King story could unfold. It also resembles a David Lynch setting; full of dark secrets just under the surface (score by Angelo Badalamenti by the way). The film's inhabitants are a strange bunch, all interconnected in complicated ways and all with their own individual craziness.
Let's call "Though Guys Don't Dance"... Quirky? It progresses in a nonlinear manner through flashbacks within flashbacks and narration. There's a dreamlike feel to much of it, as though at any moment it may turn out not to be real. The dialogue is stagey and almost Shakespearian in pacing at times. There's quite a lot of laughs, both at the darkness of the events, and at the shear audacity of this movie. The characters can't make up their minds whether to shoot each other, shoot themselves or just continue waiting for Godot.
It's confusing and incoherent. It's also brilliant and a joy to watch. Produced by Francis Coppola and American Zoetrope, "Tough Guys Don't Dance" was nominated for for four Independent Spirit awards, and four Razzies, in the same year.
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