Breathless - Always Trouble With Dale - DVD

Movie: Lorna (Gina Gershon) has had it. After her hubby Dale (Val Kilmer) spends some time in prison, he doesn't really seem to have improved there. Because Lorna is sure that Dale just robbed the bank of Red County and hid the loot somewhere to make off with it. But of course Lorna won't let that happen. Without further ado, she knocks Dale unconscious and ties him to a chair. Together with her friend Tillie, called Tiny (Kelli Giddish) by everyone, she wants to squeeze out of Dale where the 100,000 dollars are hidden, in order to share them sisterly. But during the interrogation, a messy accident occurs that leaves Dale with a big hole in his head. Now the two women have two problems at once: Where's the money and where to put the body? Just as they've come up with a solution to the latter problem, Sheriff Cooley (Ray Liotta) knocks on the door to question Dale about the robbery. And that's when the trouble really starts for Lorna and Tiny...

Breathless- Always Trouble with Dale is a black comedy that scores with a good-humoured cast and some delightfully macabre scenes. After opening credits that are very clearly borrowed from the show Dexter, the story kicks off with a delightfully trashy Gina Gershon and a wonderfully smarmy Val Kilmer, whose exit is perhaps a little too quick, but all the more amusing for it. Lorna and Tiny's arguments about what to do with the body now and the actual disposal have plenty of macabre humour potential, which is well exploited in the film's best moments.

However, it's the dialogue where it becomes clear that the film would like to be cleverer than it ultimately is. It's always difficult to have a story take place in only a limited space. That's where the dialogues are an extremely important aspect and a supporting force. Even in this story, which takes place almost entirely in Lorna and Dale's shabby trailer dwelling, the quality of the film stands or falls on its dialogue. For example, the interrogation of Dale and the disposal ideas of the two women is very amusing, but the appearance of private investigator Maurice Doucette (Wayne Duvall), on the other hand, seems too forced and just not funny due to the complete overacting of this character.

Also, the many plot twists that director Jesse Baget has incorporated into his story are only partially convincing. Again, some ideas hit the mark, while other twists are just too much of a stretch. You get the feeling that Baget was trying a bit desperately to spread some Tarantino flair here, perhaps helping his flick achieve a certain cult status. However, even though the potential is there and the film can boast some very amusing moments and good ideas, in the end it didn't turn out to be as original and clever as the comedy would like to be.

Bottom line, Breathless- Always Trouble With Dale is a humorously macabre chamber play that, with a slightly more mature script and less effortful direction, actually would have had the makings of a cult film. As it is, the whole thing is just an entertaining treat that lovers of slightly blacker humor can definitely enjoy despite its flaws.

Picture + Sound:The technical realization of the comedy is on a good level. The picture is clean, the detail sharpness neat and the very warm colors provide the right atmosphere. Only the contrasts are a little exaggerated here and there, which makes the picture a little too garish at times.

In terms of sound, it is noticeable that in the German version the ambient sounds have been almost completely suppressed. So you can hear in the original English version during a conversation of the two women clearly a plane flying over the house away, of which nothing is heard in the German version. Here, only the dialogues dominate the action. These are however powerfully and well understandably mixed.

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has in addition to the English and the German trailer to the film still offer a nearly 14 minute long Making of, which offers a very brief, but not uninteresting look at the individual aspects of the shooting.

Conclusion: Breathless- Immer Ärger mit Dale is a fairly entertaining black comedy, but it's nowhere near as original or clever as it would like to be. The good-humored play of the actors (inside) consoles over some, but not all weaknesses of the script. The DVD is technically decent, the bonus material a bit meager, but still worth watching. A film with potential, which is not fully exploited, but still enough to risk a look

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp