Thelma & Louise (1991)

Seeing how much I enjoy movies about ladies and movies about road trips, I figured the rare combination of those two would be perfect for me. In Thelma & Louise, the eponymous duo are best friends attempting a temporary escape from their boring lives and significant others for a weekend at a friend's cabin. Housewife Thelma (Geena Davis) has been suffering her controlling, condescending husband (Christopher McDonald) for years, and is ready to really let herself go and allow herself to have fun for the first time since they got married. Louise (Susan Sarandon) is a tough waitress with a devoted boyfriend (Michael Madsen), who has some unexplained emotional trauma in her history.

On the way to the cabin, they stop at a dive bar and after having too much to drink, Thelma is raped by Harlan, a smooth-talking local, in the parking lot. Louise finds them and shoots him with Thelma's "just in case" gun after he insults them both. Knowing he's dead, they flee the scene. Though Thelma wants to go to the cops, Louise is convinced that they won't believe their story (since everyone saw her dancing with him in the bar). She decides to escape to Mexico, and Thelma tags along, unwilling to abandon her friend and certainly not looking forward to a warm welcome from her husband if she returns. As they drive further southwest, they find themselves forced to break the law several more times, and the cops are soon on their trail, led by Hal (Harvey Keitel), a detective who sympathizes with the women's plight.

This is a pretty good movie about ladies, with two great female leads (especially Sarandon) and a slight pro-lesbian, anti-men undercurrent, which is unexpected in a mainstream film. The story is interesting, but slow-moving, and I guess I expected something with more bang and excitement. The dramatic elements are very good though, and that slow build-up to the iconic climax works well; I was pretty emotional by the end. But the beginning could have been cut down by about 20-30 minutes.

The performances are excellent, of course, with lots of southern accents and moody conversations. Apparently Sarandon worked a lot with Scott to develop her character more, and it really shows: Louise is convincingly real and complex. Both of the main characters are well-developed without histrionics or involved backstories; we understand their motivations and personalities through more subtle and ambiguous hints or reactions. I'm glad Callie Khouri won the Oscar for her screenplay.

Besides its initially slow pacing, I was also a little thrown off by how Thelma was affected after being violently sexually harassed. I definitely can't attest to what that is like, and I know everyone reacts differently, but I just found it hard to imagine wanting to be touched in a sexual way just a few days afterward. But I guess it related to how easily she felt comfortable with the man in question, and how little pleasant sexual experience she'd had after only sleeping with her awful husband. It's a tough issue to deal with, and it wasn't really the main focus of the film, but it just seemed that the script handled it a little strangely. It didn't feel fully resolved.

Otherwise, Thelma & Louise is an engaging and dramatic road movie centering on the important strength and power arising out of a female friendship. It could have been better, but it's still really good.

4/5