American Perfekt
American Perfekt | |
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British Broadcasting Corporation | |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
American Perfekt is a 1997
Plot
While driving alone in the Mojave Desert, Sandra Thomas's (Plummer) car breaks down after a road rage incident with another driver, Santini (Thewlis), who is later revealed to be a notorious scam artist. Sandra is offered a lift by soft-spoken passerby Jake Nyman (Forster), who identifies himself as a Los Angeles psychiatrist on a pleasure trip with decisions based on a flip of a coin. Sandra intended to meet her down-on-her-luck hitchhiking sister Alice (Fairuza Balk) in the town of Pearblossom. However, the rendezvous is once again postponed when Jake's car runs out of gas.
During a break at a
Not long after, Jake encounters Alice and gives her a ride, and while there's common knowledge he was with Sandra, the latter's whereabouts are not known. When a woman's body turns up at a motel she and Jake were staying at, the remains are identified as belonging to Rita (Balaski), a flirtatious local junkie who slept with Santini. Sheriff Frank (Paul Sorvino) and Deputy Sam (Chris Sarandon) don't suspect Jake of wrongdoing based on his clean record and demeanor; the immediate implication is that Santini, a fugitive, was involved in Rita's death and Sandra's disappearance. Alice isn't alarmed that Jake lied to police about why she was with him - claiming that she was a pregnant teen "patient" of his - and continues to go along for the ride.
Later, Santini pursues Jake and Alice on the highway but careens off the road and crashes his car. Alice attempts to rescue him but he's unable to speak due to an injury to the mouth and dies. Sheriff Frank finds a human tongue in the toilet of Jake's motel room and learns from an
As a last ditch effort to save her life and appease Jake's philosophy, Alice proposes a coin toss in which she can either walk free (heads) or he'll kill her (tails), using a switched double-headed Kennedy half dollar taken from Santini. Jake discovers the coin is counterfeit and turns his vehicle around to retrieve his coin for a re-toss, but is t-boned by Frank and Sam's approaching car, resulting in the deaths of all three.
Cast
- Fairuza Balk as Alice Thomas
- Robert Forster as Jake Nyman
- Amanda Plummer as Sandra Thomas
- Paul Sorvino as Sheriff Frank Noonan
- David Thewlis as Santini
- Chris Sarandon as Deputy Sammy
- Geoffrey Lewis as Willy
- Jay Patterson as Bertnie
- Judson Mills as Junior
- Rutanya Alda as Gloria
- Belinda Balaski as Rita
References
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: American Perfekt". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
External links
- American Perfekt at IMDb
- American Perfekt at Rotten Tomatoes
- American Perfekt at AllMovie