''Flesh and Bone'' is a 1993 American neo noir

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by Steve Kloves that stars

Meg Ryan Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap oper ...

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...

and

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Suppo ...

. Gwyneth Paltrow is featured in an early role, for which she received some praise.

Plot

A family in rural Texas finds a boy, Arlis, who says he is lost. They take him into their home, feed him, and give a place to sleep. But the boy later lets his father, Roy (

), into the house to commit a robbery. When they are discovered, Roy brutally murders the family, which the boy witnesses. The sole survivor is a baby girl. Time passes, and Arlis (

) lives a solitary life in which he drives a truckload of goods and novelties to restock vending machines and arcade games in roadside stores and restaurants. Making a stop at a roadhouse where a rowdy party is being held, he spots Kay (

), a woman who pops up out of a cake at the party and then passes out because she's been drinking liquor. Arlis ends up giving her a ride home, a long drive, while continuing to make his rounds. Upon coming home, Kay sees that her husband Reese has sold the furniture, having lost their money gambling. She packs up her remaining belongings and leaves with Arlis. They spend more time together and grow close. Meanwhile, a young woman named Ginnie ( Gwyneth Paltrow) now travels with a much older Roy. She is a grifter who will pretend to be a mourner in order to steal the jewelry from a dead body at a funeral home. Ginnie brings an injured Roy to his estranged son, Arlis, to tend to his injury. Passing the house where he grew up, Arlis realizes that Kay was the infant who survived the long-ago murders. Roy figures this out as well. He begins talking about tying up loose ends. It leads to a confrontation, and Arlis shoots Roy dead. Ginnie goes off on her own, and Kay and Arlis go their separate ways.

Cast

as Arlis Sweeney *

as Kay Davies *

as Roy Sweeney * Gwyneth Paltrow as Ginnie * Scott Wilson as Elliott *

Gail Cronauer Gail Cronauer is an American stage, television, and feature film actress and an acting professor. She has performed in films as diverse as Oliver Stone's '' JFK'' to the TV series, ''Walker, Texas Ranger''. She is a recipient of the 2007 Dallas ...

as Emma * John Hawkes as Groom

Location

Principal photography began on October 5, 1992 and completed on December 26, 1992. It was filmed in

Lockhart Lockhart may refer to: *Lockhart (surname) Places Australia *Lockhart, New South Wales *Lockhart River, Queensland *Lockhart River, Western Australia United States *Lockhart, Alabama *Lockhart, Florida *Lockhart, Minnesota *Lockhart, Sout ...

and

Marfa, Texas Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. It is the county seat of Presidio County, and its population as of the 2010 United States Census was 1,981. The cit ...

, as well as at the Mustang Mott store owned by Maxine McCoy, in

Westhoff, Texas Westhoff is an unincorporated community in northwestern DeWitt County, Texas, United States. The population of the town peaked at near 500 in the mid-1920s, and since the 1960s most official documents list the town population at 410, where it rem ...

. Producer Mark Rosenberg died of a heart attack suffered on the film's location in Stanton, Texas. As the

end credits Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of ...

begin, the film is dedicated to him.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Flesh and Bone'' holds a 65% approval rating from 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 57 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.

References

External links

* * * * * 1993 films 1993 drama films 1990s English-language films American drama films American neo-noir films Films about con artists Films directed by Steve Kloves Films scored by Thomas Newman Films set in Texas Films shot in Texas Films with screenplays by Steve Kloves Paramount Pictures films Southern Gothic films 1990s American films {{1990s-drama-film-stub