''Romeo Is Bleeding'' is a 1993

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

Peter Medak Péter Medák (born 23 December 1937) is a Hungarians in the United Kingdom, Hungarian-British film and television director. Early life Born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary, he was the son of Elisabeth (née Diamounstein) and Gyula Med ...

, written and produced by Hilary Henkin, and starring

Gary Oldman Sir Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Gary Oldman, various accolades, including an Academ ...

, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra,

Juliette Lewis Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress, singer and musician. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark plots, themes and settings. Lewis gained prominence in American cinema during t ...

, and

Roy Scheider Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer who achieved fame with his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s through to the mid-1980s. He was nominated for t ...

. It follows a psychosexual

cat-and-mouse game Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mous ...

between a corrupt cop (Oldman), and a ruthless mob assassin (Olin) who begin to fall in love. The film's title was taken from a

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...

. Released in the United States by

Gramercy Pictures Gramercy Pictures was an American film production label. It was founded on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy was the distributor of PolyGram films in the United States and Canada ...

, the film was critically unsuccessful and did not perform well at the box office (grossing $7 million from a $10 million budget), although its acting has garnered praise.

Plot

Jack Grimaldi is an

NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

homicide detective who seems to have everything: a lavish lifestyle; a beautiful wife, Natalie; and an adoring teenaged mistress, Sheri. However, Jack only affords his lifestyle because he's on the take, doing favors for

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

boss Don Falcone in exchange for large cash bribes. Jack's latest task is to reveal the location of Nick Gazarra, a mobster-turned-state's witness protected by federal agents. Gazarra and his protection detail are subsequently killed by a mob hitwoman, Mona Demarkov. Jack is disaffected by this outcome, being uncomfortable with his complicity in the deaths of other law enforcement personnel. Mona is arrested and Falcone assigns Jack to kill her, as he fears that she could not only testify against him but take over his entire operation. Still ambivalent about his double life, Jack is assigned as Mona's minder and transports her to a safe house to await pick-up by federal agents. Upon arrival, Mona quickly seduces and tries to kill Jack, but they are interrupted by the agents. Jack leaves Mona in their custody. Falcone, disappointed in Jack's ineptitude, orders one of his toes amputated. Realizing he has endangered both his wife and mistress, Jack instructs Natalie to leave the city immediately, giving her all of the payoff money he has saved as well as instructions for where to meet him out

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

when the time is right. Jack also ends his affair with Sheri and puts her on a train out of town. He tracks down Mona, who offers to pay Jack to help her fake her own death. Although he obtains false papers for her, Mona refuses to pay and attempts to strangle Jack. He shoots her in the arm, then tries to drive away with her handcuffed in the back seat. Mona escapes by hooking her legs around his neck, causing him to crash the car. She slithers out through the shattered windshield without freeing her hands. Mona lures Jack to an empty apartment. He again attempts to kill her but is tricked into shooting Sheri instead. Mona fixes the corpse so as to suggest that it was she, and not Sheri, who died. Mona has Jack abducted and transported to an abandoned warehouse where she handcuffs him to a bed and they have sex. Later she forces Jack to assist in burying Falcone alive. Mona betrays Jack by turning him in to the police, copping a

plea deal A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include ...

that will indict Jack for the multiple murders that she tricked him into committing. The police arrange a confrontation between Jack and Mona at the courthouse. Mona tells Jack sex with him was lame, that Jack's wife "is a dead woman" and that Jack himself "is a dead man". Furious, Jack grabs a gun from a fellow officer's ankle holster and shoots Mona dead. He turns the gun on himself, only to discover that the revolver is now empty. Instead of being sent to prison for the murder, he is given a commendation. This frees him to begin a new life out West, under the identity of "Jim Daugherty". The final scene shows Jack living alone in a remote desert town and working at a diner. He waits every May 1 and December 1 for his wife, Natalie, to find him, as they planned before she left; but she never does. As he waits for her, he mourns his old life while looking at his wedding photo album: first, the many color photos of himself and Natalie, followed by black and white Polaroids of his various paramours, including Mona.

Cast

as Jack Grimaldi/Jim Daugherty * Lena Olin as Mona Demarkov * Annabella Sciorra as Natalie Grimaldi *

as Sheri *

as Don Falcone *

Michael Wincott Michael Anthony Claudio Wincott (born January 21, 1958) is a Canadian actor. His deep, raspy voice has often led to his being cast in villainous roles. Some of his best-known roles include Guy of Gisbourne in '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' ( ...

as Sal * David Proval as Scully *

Will Patton William Rankin Patton (born June 14, 1954) is an American actor. He starred as Colonel Dan Weaver in the TNT science fiction series '' Falling Skies''.Tony Sirico Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. (; July 24, 1942 – July 8, 2022) was an American actor. Often cast as a mobster, he portrayed Paulie Gualtieri in ''The Sopranos''. Born in Brooklyn to an Italian-American family, Sirico had a tumultuous early life ...

as Malacci * James Cromwell as Cage *

Ron Perlman Ronald N. Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in th ...

as Jack's Attorney * Dennis Farina as Nick Gazzara (uncredited)

Production

The film was shot on location in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

, Williamsburg,

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southe ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, and

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and Lead vocalist, frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was fo ...

wrote the song " Always" for the film but withheld the track after he was dissatisfied with a preview screening. Bon Jovi in 2004 recalled, "The script was great: the movie wasn't."

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

said that while Oldman is "unsurpassable" in portraying depraved characters, the film is "an exercise in overwrought style and overwritten melodrama, and proof that a great cast cannot save a film from self-destruction."

Todd McCarthy Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for '' Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...

of '' Variety'' also had praise for the central cast, but called the film a "heavy dose of ultra-violent neo-noir" whose "far-fetched plotting eventually goes so far over the top that hepic flirts with inventing a new genre of film noir camp." ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' journalist

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

lauded Oldman as a "master craftsman" who gives an "uncanny performance as a slang-spouting American", but concluded, "For all its promise, and for all the brittle beauty of Dariusz Wolski's cinematography, ''Romeo Is Bleeding'' eventually collapses under the weight of its violent affectations." A favorable

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...

in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' called the film a "scorcher of a thriller" with a "knockout performance" by Olin. He added, "It will be a shame if audiences don't get the joke". In a retrospective review, Dennis Schwartz referred to the film as a "senseless, tasteless and demented postmodern noir", but commended Olin's "menacing" turn as well as the initial interaction between Oldman and Scheider. Randy Miller of ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' wrote, "It's a wild and entertaining ride, to be sure... but not one without its fair share of bumps along the way, and one you probably won't revisit on a regular basis. Still, there's enough here to warrant another look." MSN Movies noted, "While not a great movie – or even a good movie, according to most critics – Gary Oldman's performance as corrupt cop Jack Grimaldi is still highly regarded".''Romeo Is Bleeding'' profile
MSN Movies; retrieved 30 July 2013. ''Romeo Is Bleeding'' holds a 27% approval rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

based on 41 reviews, with an average score of 4.7/10.

Box office

The film debuted poorly at the box office and grossed $3.3 million in total in the US and Canada and $7 million worldwide. It did not fare any better in the United Kingdom, opening on 43 screens and grossing £50,438 in its opening weekend, ranking 12th in the UK and 8th in London.

Year-end lists

* 6th – John Hurley, ''

Staten Island Advance The ''Staten Island Advance'' is a daily newspaper published in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. It is the only daily newspaper published in Staten Island and the only major daily newspaper focused on covering it exclu ...

Awards

*Nominee: Best Supporting Actress - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (Lena Olin) *Nominee: Best Action Sequence - MTV Awards (Lena Olin)''Romeo is Bleeding'' profile
imdb.com; accessed 28 March 2014.

References

External links

* * * *
''Romeo Is Bleeding''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

{{Peter Medak 1993 films 1993 crime thriller films 1990s American films 1990s British films 1990s English-language films 1990s erotic thriller films American crime thriller films American erotic thriller films American neo-noir films British crime thriller films British erotic thriller films British neo-noir films Films about the American Mafia Films directed by Peter Medak Films scored by Mark Isham Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Working Title Films films English-language crime thriller films English-language erotic thriller films