Jacob Asch (Eric Roberts), a 'down on luck' reporter turned Private Investigator, is hired by an eccentric painter (Raymond J. Barry) to locate his ex-wife, Laine (Beverly D'Angelo) and their son, Brian in Palm Springs where she re-married to a millionaire, Simon Fleischer (Dan Hedaya), becoming the stepmother of his teenage son, Donnie (Johnny Depp). What seemed to be an easy job for Jacob, everything starts to fall apart when he finds out what really happened to Brian at the same time as Donnie, mysteriously, disappears...
Interesting 'made-for-TV" movie, executive produced by Joel Schumacher, written & directed by Matthew Chapman, based on the pulp mystery novel "Castles Burning" by Arthur Lyons, presents a good cast on the top of their form led by a young, clean and sober, Eric Roberts, fresh from his Oscar Nominated role in "Runaway Train" the very same year and blonde bombshell, Beverly D'Angelo, which was tailor made for this kind of role playing the 'femme fatale'.
"Slow Burning" is engaging to watch, despite the direction being a bit pedestrian, it works as a dark detective story set (& shot) in Palm Springs, by having that characteristically 'noirish' visual style tied with a 'noir-type' plot adapted to the more flamboyant 80's decade. The screenplay is well written, intriguing & keeps the viewer guessing, becoming even eerie when it reaches the III Act.
The lower points of this production are the lack of a decent budget (it's visually poor in some scenes) and the shocking content being toned down to accommodate a TV produced movie.
The performances are all good, from Roberts, the camera for sure loved him in his early days of acting to Beverly D'Angelo; the always great character actors, Raymond J. Barry ("Year of the Dragon") & Dan Hedaya ("Commando"); the lovely Emily Longstreth at her cutest & a 22 years old, Johnny Depp (after they appeared together in the sex teen comedy, "Private Resort" the year before) and a lot of well-known faces at the time, including Henry Gibson ("The 'Burbs"), Matthew Laurence ("Eddie and the Cruisers"), Anne Schedeen (the mother from "ALF"), Dennis Lipscomb ("WarGames") or the future "Reservoir Dogs" star, Edward Bunker (who also appeared with Roberts in "Runaway Train" the year before).
In short, this movie became notorious (and remembered nowadays) due to an early appearance on-screen by Johnny Depp, here in his third film and still unaware of his future stardom, but "Slow Burn" deserves to be rediscovered by itself, especially for fans of the 'neo-noir' genre & intricate detective stories and as a final note, Schumacher, who executive produced it, gave another chance at this about 13 years later, producing and directing a big budget theatrically released film called "8MM", which shared some plot points and even characters' fate with this one.
Recommended !!
Interesting 'made-for-TV" movie, executive produced by Joel Schumacher, written & directed by Matthew Chapman, based on the pulp mystery novel "Castles Burning" by Arthur Lyons, presents a good cast on the top of their form led by a young, clean and sober, Eric Roberts, fresh from his Oscar Nominated role in "Runaway Train" the very same year and blonde bombshell, Beverly D'Angelo, which was tailor made for this kind of role playing the 'femme fatale'.
"Slow Burning" is engaging to watch, despite the direction being a bit pedestrian, it works as a dark detective story set (& shot) in Palm Springs, by having that characteristically 'noirish' visual style tied with a 'noir-type' plot adapted to the more flamboyant 80's decade. The screenplay is well written, intriguing & keeps the viewer guessing, becoming even eerie when it reaches the III Act.
The lower points of this production are the lack of a decent budget (it's visually poor in some scenes) and the shocking content being toned down to accommodate a TV produced movie.
The performances are all good, from Roberts, the camera for sure loved him in his early days of acting to Beverly D'Angelo; the always great character actors, Raymond J. Barry ("Year of the Dragon") & Dan Hedaya ("Commando"); the lovely Emily Longstreth at her cutest & a 22 years old, Johnny Depp (after they appeared together in the sex teen comedy, "Private Resort" the year before) and a lot of well-known faces at the time, including Henry Gibson ("The 'Burbs"), Matthew Laurence ("Eddie and the Cruisers"), Anne Schedeen (the mother from "ALF"), Dennis Lipscomb ("WarGames") or the future "Reservoir Dogs" star, Edward Bunker (who also appeared with Roberts in "Runaway Train" the year before).
In short, this movie became notorious (and remembered nowadays) due to an early appearance on-screen by Johnny Depp, here in his third film and still unaware of his future stardom, but "Slow Burn" deserves to be rediscovered by itself, especially for fans of the 'neo-noir' genre & intricate detective stories and as a final note, Schumacher, who executive produced it, gave another chance at this about 13 years later, producing and directing a big budget theatrically released film called "8MM", which shared some plot points and even characters' fate with this one.
Recommended !!