Ridley Scott’s last great film comes in the form of this sassy laugh-a-minute road movie with a deadly twist.
Starting out a humdrum chick-flick, Thelma (Davis) and Louise (Sarandon) stick it to the man – quite literally for Thelma, who gives her nauseatingly piggish hubby (McDonald) the slip – for a weekend of rural respite at a friend’s cabin, before a truly head-snapping surprise turns the tables on the pair.
An odd couple, it’s true, but Thelma’s ditzy yet reckless spirit is brilliantly set against Louise’s cautious cynicism in 130 minutes of whippet-smart gags and jaw-dropping desert panoramas.
Don’t be so quick to pigeon-hole the two hell-raisers though. The beauty of Scott’s 1991 tour de force is in the complex character development its leading ladies undergo when things slow down and the engines die. Their personalities intertwine, unrecognisable by the nerve-shredding finale. Even the (at times) dodgy southern accents can’t slam the brakes on this feminist force that puts most modern ‘girl-power’ pictures to shame.
Alex Flood 