Peter Horton

Haunting family fantasy film about a young boy who is drowning and falls into a parallel limbo world in which the dying hover between life and death. A very lyrical story where the young boy will meet where love and magic and courage will be part of his journey.

In the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, two hit-men, Lee Woods (James Spader) and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello), break into a house at night and walk into a bedroom where a sleeping couple, aspiring Olympic athlete Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher) and her ex-husband Roy Foxx (Peter Horton) are in bed. Lee injects Becky with a tranquilizer then shoots Roy in the head. Lee and Dosmo then drive to an abandoned area off Mulholland Drive, where Lee shoots Dosmo and blows up the car in order to set Dosmo up as the fall guy for the murder. Lee flees the scene with his Swedish girlfriend, Helga Svelgen (Charlize Theron) where they hide out at a local hotel bungalow. However, Dosmo was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived the shooting and car explosion. He seeks shelter at the mansion of wealthy art dealer, Allan Hopper (Greg Cruttwell) where he takes Hopper and his assistant, Susan Parish (Glenne Headly) hostage. Dosmo is unaware that Hopper has called his sister, Audrey Hopper (Marsha Mason) a nurse, to come to the house. On her way, Audrey picks up Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky) a down-and-out TV producer contemplating suicide. The next morning, Becky awakens and discovers Roy's body in bed beside her. She runs from her house and flags down two police detectives, young, ambitious Wes Taylor (Eric Stoltz) and cynical veteran Alvin Strayer (Jeff Daniels) who are driving by. Although he is sympathetic, Wes begins to suspect that Becky knows more than she is saying. It turns out that Becky was the one who had hired Lee and Dosmo to kill Roy for $30,000, but was unaware that they would kill Roy in her own house. When Audrey arrives at Allan's house, Dosmo takes both her and Teddy hostage as well as forces Audrey to tend to his wounds in exchange for her not being harmed. Meanwhile, Lee goes back to the house to get the money, encounters homicide detectives Creighton (Keith Carradine) and Carla Valenzuela (Ada Maris) working the crime scene, and kills them both. Wes decides to return to the crime scene to see if he can offer any insight on the case. Masquerading as one of the detectives, Lee lures Wes outside, intending to kill him. In Lee's bungalow, Becky and Helga get into an argument, which escalates into a fight. After being smashed over the head with a vase by Becky, Helga reaches across the bed to grab her gun from her purse, but Becky realizes this and runs and grabs the gun as well to prevent herself from being shot. In a confused fight for the gun, Helga ends up getting shot and wounded in her left side, after which Becky escapes from the hotel with Helga shooting at her from the doorway of the room multiple times but missing with each shot. Helga finds her way to Becky's house, where Lee has knocked Wes unconscious. Lee reluctantly decides to kill Helga instead of taking her to the hospital, concluding that her wound is too severe to be treated, but his gun jams. He turns to retrieve Wes' gun but finds that Helga has escaped and has flagged down a passing car containing Dosmo and his four hostages. Audrey jumps out of the moving car and tries to help the dying Helga, but Helga dies on the roadside. Wes is caught in the middle of a shootout between Dosmo and Lee, and is shot in both of his legs. Just before Lee can kill Dosmo, Teddy shoots Lee, killing him. A grateful Wes allows Dosmo to take the $30,000 and escape with Susan. The following day, Teddy shows up to an anniversary party that Audrey is attending. In the final scene, as Susan and Dosmo drive down a highway leaving Los Angeles behind them, Dosmo contemplates using the money to start a pizzeria in Brooklyn. Susan smiles and he kisses her.

A law student comes to California for the summer and ends up playing professional volleyball. Midwestern law student comes to California for summer work. Instead, hangs out at the beach and chases waitresses. Meets up with a washed-up King of the Beach, and the rookie wins the biggest tournament of the year in only his second tournament. —Todd Christensen <todd.christensen@atlantaga.ncr.com>