James Spader: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
And 5 That Sucked...
5. Ronnie Strover - Keys To Tulsa (1997)
Less Blood Simple than Blood Simple-Minded, Keys To Tulsa is, for Spader, a grave lesson about the dangers of knowing your limits. Best known for playing characters in equal measure cerebral, neurotic, and soulful, Spader is out of his depth as Ronnie, a greasy, greaser good ole boy with a drug habit. With his eyes dim from drug use or else hidden behind cheap shades, Spader isnt given much to work with as the half-assed blackmailer who gets in over his head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om916zHfPMY The film reunites him with Deborah Kara Unger, with whom he showed such chemistry in Crash, but Ronnie feels like a one-note hood, an Elmore Leonard ripoff who carries a sense of danger only because his compatriot, protagonist and rich kid done bad Richter (Eric Stoltz), is such a lightweight. Keys To Tulsa tries everything - Michael Rooker as an abusive redneck, James Coburn as a defensive businessman - but never rises above cliche, and Spader simply gets lost in the mess.
